Knock Next Time!
by SoulfulSam
Summary: Bobby, Jo, and Ellen try to enlist Sam and Dean for help on a hunt, but they aren't answering their phones. Jo barges into their room w/o knocking and is unprepared for what she sees. Wincest, Sam/Dean
1. An Unexpected Sight

Just a quick note - this story takes place during the summer (in the month of July) between seasons 2 and 3, just a couple of months after Dean sold his soul.

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Jo was beginning to feel impatient. She'd been sitting on the hood of her car in the parking lot of Sam and Dean's motel room and waiting with her mom and Bobby for a good ten minutes now and it was beginning to feel like a standoff.

Sitting beside her on the beat-up, faded red hood, Ellen checked her phone. "I called Dean twice now, once when we were five minutes out and again when we got here and didn't get an answer either time."

Bobby finally stepped out of his car, which was undoubtedly getting hot from the summer sun, tipped his trucker's cap, and took several steps forward. "No such luck with Sam, either. Guess they must be busy; we may have to go this one by ourselves."

Ellen nodded and began to descend from the hood, but Jo shot out an arm in front of her, blocking her movement. She hadn't seen Dean in over five months and was determined to do whatever she could to make him and his brother come along on this hunt. In the fantasy that she'd been growing, nurturing, and playing with for the past half hour since Bobby had first suggested giving them a call, the five of them would quickly slash through the nearby vampire nest and then celebrate by going out for a beer. While they were at some nearby dive, she would slink off with Dean somewhere to talk and then finally make something out of all the idle flirting and sexual tension that had gone on between them for so long. Maybe Dean would cup her face in his hand and lean forward uncertainly while she closed the distance between their mouths, or maybe she would be the first to make a move and that scenario would play out the other way around. Maybe she'd just say to hell with coyness, fling her arms around him and let him know right away just how much she wanted him, show him just how far she was willing to go. Maybe she and Dean would even end up renting a motel room for the night. She thought about the kind of ecstasy Dean would bring her; he looked like the kind of man who knew what to do in bed.

But none of that seemed likely at the moment, because Dean wasn't picking up his damn phone! "No, they're here; look, the Impala is parked right outside!"

Bobby shook his head. "Well, they're not answering, so obviously they must be busy with something. Hell, I don't think we even really need them; I just made the suggestion 'cause I knew they were in the area. Maybe it's best we just leave them alone and take care of this one ourselves."

Ellen nodded her head and she and Bobby exchanged a knowing glance that Jo didn't understand. "Think you're right, Bobby. Come on, baby, let's get in the car."

Jo clenched her jaw defiantly. "But…what if they're in trouble? I mean, they always answer their phones, right?" She swiftly dismounted from the hood and marched towards the door of Sam and Dean's motel room. She had gotten her hopes up too much to just give up and leave now. "I'm going to go check it out." From behind her, she heard her mom cry out for her, asking her to wait, before Jo turned to her, put a finger to her lips, and tried the door.

She was surprised to find the door unlocked and for a crazy second she wondered if maybe the motel office manager had given them the wrong room number, but then she saw the salt line right in front of the door. A quick glance around the room verified beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was in the right place; Sam's laptop lay open on the desk to her right while a trashcan full of empty beer bottles lay to her left. Once she quietly closed the door and saw that the salt line was unbroken she was about to start looking for devil's traps when she heard a noise coming from the bathroom. It sounded like the water in the shower was running and she was hearing what sounded like hushed whispers coming from Sam. Ah-ha, she knew something was wrong! It seemed clear to her now that someone or something must have had them trapped somehow in the bathroom and she couldn't believe that her mom and Bobby were ready to leave them while they were so obviously in trouble just to go and hunt some stupid vampire nest. She grabbed her gun from the back of her jeans' waistband, tiptoed to the bathroom, and crept inside.

Out of all the things that Jo thought she might find in that bathroom, she was not prepared for the scene that actually lay before her. A thin fog of steam came towards her the instant she stepped through the door but through it she could make out the gray linoleum, white tiled walls, and white toilet tank in front of her. She turned to her right, towards the origin of the voice, and saw Sam standing in the shower with the water falling over him, naked. He had one hand wrapped around the shower curtain rod and the other pushed against the wall as if he was using it as a brace to hold himself up. Of course, she wouldn't have been able to see how Sam had been positioned in the shower, but the beige shower curtain was pulled back slightly, which was probably also Sam's handiwork with his hand wrapped around the rod right in front of the curtain like it was. His head was tilted back slightly with a look of sheer pleasure on his face while he quietly moaned, "Dean, Dean, Dean," in a tone honeyed with sensuality and sex. Then her eyes moved down a couple of feet and she saw why Sam was moaning his brother's name in that way. Dean was kneeling in front of him, his hair and body also dripping wet despite the fact that he was just out of reach of the shower's spray, with his lips wrapped around Sam's dick as he bobbed his head back and forth on it ever so slightly. He had one hand steadied on Sam's hip and the other was on his ass, his forefinger moving back and forth as it disappeared between Sam's cheeks.

Jo watched in horror, too shocked and disgusted to even move. After about thirty seconds, Sam unexpectedly glanced over, saw her, and jumped backwards.

"Oh my god!" He hastily threw his hands over his crotch in a failed attempt to hide himself and show some modesty.

At Sam's reaction, Dean suddenly looked over and spotted Jo as well and he stared, looking thoroughly surprised and a little indignant. "What the hell? You're gonna shoot us?"

She had forgotten what she was even still holding the gun. She quickly shoved it back into the waistband of her jeans. Her eyes moved from Sam's embarrassed, guilt-stricken face to Dean's ashamed, angry one. Her mouth was swung open like a broken hinge and it took her several seconds before her mind could even form a sentence. "What the fuck is going on?"

Dean turned his head, where he was eyelevel with the shower knob, and turned off the water. Sam quickly stepped behind the shower curtain and then she saw one long, muscular arm reach out and grab two beige motel towels where they lay on a shelf hanging on the wall beside the shower. The arm disappeared behind the curtain and then reappeared as one of the towels was handed to the still kneeling Dean. The shower curtain then made several fluttering motions, which she could only assume was Sam quickly wrapping the towel around his wet, naked form. Dean wrapped his towel around his waist and then quickly rose to his feet and stepped out of the shower. As he took a step towards Jo, she couldn't help but notice the way the towel slightly bulged in the front, showing the remains of his dying arousal and she slightly cringed.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I – ah…" She really wished right then that she could just crawl under a rock and die. "We were calling you. My mom and Bobby, we're on a hunt –"

Dean looked suddenly alarmed. "Bobby and Ellen are here?"

She pointed towards the front door. "They're right outside."

Dean walked past Jo, who took a big step backwards to give leave as much space between them as possible. He stuck his head out the bathroom door, as if expecting to see Bobby and Ellen standing in the room just outside. Even Sam shyly peeked his head out from behind the curtain, looking curious and mortified. At seeing no one in the main room, Dean moved completely back inside the bathroom, turned to his brother, and slightly shook his head. Sam nodded in response and once again completely disappeared behind the curtain.

Then Dean turned to Jo. "Well, why the hell aren't you out there with them? Don't you know how to knock?"

She stamped her foot, suddenly feeling slighted and outraged. "Neither of you would answer your phones!"

"If you'd given us another five minutes, then we'd have been done and I would have checked my damn phone and called you back!"

She leaned back and suddenly felt like she was going to cry. Another five minutes. Another five minutes of her sitting on the hood of that insufferably hot car and fantasizing about Dean while he finished up sucking off his brother. Another five minutes and he would have wiped Sam's come from his mouth, gotten off of his knees, and then called her back, using that same mouth to send idle, flirtatious comments her way. She closed her eyes and shook her head, using the physical motion to try to dislodge the thoughts from her brain. Behind Dean, she saw Sam pull back the shower curtain so he was standing in full view with his towel wrapped around his waist and shaking his head disapprovingly at his brother's poor word choice. She moved her eyes from Sam to Dean and managed a whispered, "you two are disgusting," before pushing past Dean and heading speedily for the front door. She had already stepped out through the front door and into the bright sunlight when she felt a strong hand grab her gruffly by the elbow and she wheeled around and saw Dean, still clad in nothing but a towel, looking indignant but also ashamed and concerned. They were by then mere feet away from Bobby and Ellen, who were still standing by their cars, but Dean either didn't notice or just didn't acknowledge them as he stared at Jo.

"Hey, Jo, come on! Will you calm down for a second? I mean, do you really think that Sam and I ever wanted this?"

She worked her face into the best glowering expression she could. "It certainly looked like you wanted it from where I was standing."

"Okay, well that," he moved one arm and vaguely gestured back towards the motel room. "Yeah, okay, we wanted that. But that's not –"

"For fuck's sake, Dean!" Jo shouted over him. "He's your _brother_!" She spat the last word with venom and at hearing it Dean recoiled as if something poisonous had actually bitten him.

His face contorted into the look of a shamed child and he looked down at the ground, no longer able to meet her gaze. "I know."

From behind her, Jo felt another pair of hands grab her by the arms and she heard her mother's voice in her ear. "Okay baby, come on; get in the car."

From the little bit of conversation that they had exchanged out in the parking lot, she knew her mother would be able to easily deduce what she had seen inside the motel room. But, somehow, she was sounded pretty calm, a little too calm…

She turned on her mother, feeling angry and betrayed. "You knew about this?"

Ellen's eyes shifted from Jo to Dean and back again. "I didn't know, but I always thought…"

Jo flew into a rage. "Oh my god! I can't believe you!"

Her mother fixed her with a stern stare. "Joanna Beth Harvelle, you get your ass in that car this instant! Dean, get back into your room and get yourself dressed."

Jo stared angrily back at her mother, but knew that right then she couldn't defy her and marched back to the hot car, climbed inside, and slammed the door. Ellen turned to Dean, who reluctantly met her gaze. At that moment Sam appeared in the doorway of the motel room dressed in a ribbed, gray, muscle shirt and blue jeans with a look on his face that could only be compared to that of a man about to face a firing squad. Ellen smiled sadly at him and gave him a friendly nod.

Dean followed her gaze to Sam, then turned his ashamed and humiliated face back at her and then back down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

She grabbed his chin with her thumb and forefinger. "No reason to be sorry, sweetie. Now please, go back inside and get dressed. And tell your brother I want to have a talk with him."

Dean turned around and walked back to the motel room. When he reached the doorway, Jo saw him turn and mumble something Sam, who instantly straightened up, his face turning even more worried, and then the two of them disappeared back into the room, closing the door behind them.

Ellen turned to Bobby, who by now was standing right beside her, and lowered her voice, but the air conditioning in the car was broken so Jo had the windows down and could therefore still hear the hushed whisperings of their conversation. "Did you know about this?"

Bobby nodded. "Suspected for a long time, but I found out for certain a couple of months ago."

"I know it's none of my business, but how long has this been going on?"

Bobby shrugged. "Far as I can figure, since before they were born."

Ellen looked back at Bobby with an expression that said that somehow Bobby's bizarre comment made perfect sense to her and nodded. She glanced quickly back at the car where Jo sat, still silently fuming, and turned back to Bobby. "Think I'm going to take Jo out for a quick drive. When I come back, I just wanna have a quick word with Sam and then we can go."

Bobby nodded and Ellen turned and walked back towards the car. Without looking back over at Jo, she got in the car and started the engine. Jo glared murderously at her.

"You knew?"

Ellen threw the car into drive and pulled out of the lot and onto the road, then looked over apprehensively at her daughter. "No. But I suspected."

Jo was about to open her mouth and shout at her mother, call her a traitor, and say any number of things that she thought might help her alleviate her extreme feelings of embarrassment, anger, and jealousy but her mom spoke before her. "I know you're hurting, baby, I do. And I understand; I know how you feel about Dean. But you listen to me; as difficult as this is for you, it's about a hundred times worse for them."

Joe looked forward at the road in front of them and angrily crossed her arms, not sure of what else to say.

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Inside the room, Sam watched as Dean sat down on his bed, the same bed where they had made love to each other only a couple of hours before, and then looked dejectedly down at his hands.

"So, you, ah, you gonna get dressed?"

"Yeah, in a minute."

"Dude, why would you chase after Jo only wearing a towel?"

"I dunno; I guess I just didn't want her to leave like that."

Sam sat down on the bed beside Dean. "She should have knocked."

"Yeah, she should have. But still…Sam, you ever think, I don't know, that maybe what we're doing here…"

Sam clenched his jaw, looking worried. "Dean, I thought we'd already agreed; no more running from this, and no more trying to hide or deny it. We're always much worse off every time we do that."

"Yeah, I know. But…you heard her, right?"

"Yeah, I heard her. I honestly don't know what else you'd expect though, Dean; you know she's always had a little crush on you. Right now she's hurt and she's angry, but she'll get over it. Just give her some time."

Dean got up, dropped his towel, walked over to the tall, wooden dresser resting against the wall about fifteen feet in front of him, opened up the top drawer, and pulled out an old, faded, black, short-sleeved Metallica t-shirt. "I don't know, Sam. You saw her." He threw on the shirt and then dug around in the same drawer and pulled out a pair of boxers. "She really believed it when she said that we're disgusting. Not to mention she walked in on me sucking your cock." He quickly slipped the boxers on and opened another drawer, looking for a pair of pants.

"Yeah, that was just unpleasant for everyone. You're not, I mean, she's not making you re-think us, is she?"

Dean, who was slipping on a pair of dark blue jeans, turned to face Sam. "No, not seriously. We've been through this too many times before, Sam and I'm tired of fighting it. I just hope we don't lose anyone over this," he finished fastening his pants and then vaguely gestured between them, "thing we have between us."

Sam nodded, feeling very relieved, and then stood up. "I guess I'd better find out what Ellen wants to talk to me about." With that he left Dean to finish getting dressed and stepped out the door.

Bobby was standing beside his car, alone in the parking lot when Sam came outside to meet him. "Hey, Bobby. Where's Ellen and Jo?"

Bobby jerked his head towards the road. "They went for a drive. I'm sorry, Sam; I should of made sure you boys weren't busy before we came over here. Ellen and I tried to stop her, but she'd have none of it. Given the situation, we weren't really sure of what we should do, so we weren't real forceful with her."

Sam smiled and nodded. "It's okay, Bobby; it's really just one hell of an embarrassing situation is all. Dean's…well, I don't think Dean's coming outside for a while."

Bobby nodded. "But you boys are alright and all?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good."

"So…Ellen knew about us too before this? Did you tell her?"

Bobby gave Sam a lopsided smile. "I'm pretty sure that for years everyone knew. Well, except you and Dean for a little while there…"

"And Jo," Sam finished.

"Yeah. She probably saw it too, just didn't want to."

Sam nodded and then there was an awkward silence for several seconds until Sam decided it was probably best to change the subject. "So…what brought you guys over here in the first place?"

Bobby shook his head. "It was really the stupidest thing. Got a nest of vamps about fifteen miles from here, big one, about twelve or thirteen of 'em all living together in some abandoned barn, and I thought you and Dean might want to come along and help."

"Yeah?" Sam's brows furrowed together in thought as he considered the strangeness of this information; Jo had said that they were all there working a job, but it was kind of hard to believe. With all the excitement, he hadn't gotten much of a chance to really think about it until just then, but the last he knew, Jo had moved out of the Roadhouse because she and Ellen had had a huge falling out over Jo wanting to be a hunter. Now they were working together? "So, when did Ellen start hunting? I mean, I thought she was pretty against it."

Bobby gave Sam a lopsided grin and shrugged. "I don't think it's gonna become a regular thing. She's coming along this time for back-up just because it's such a big nest and we couldn't find anyone else able to come along on such short notice. I thought it would be safer and a little faster if you two came along, but we're just gonna spring on them in the middle of the day and chop their heads off while they sleep. With just the three of us, we'll probably burn through at least six or seven of them before they even know they're under attack and we'll get through another three or four of them before they orient themselves enough to try and fight back, so we should be able to just handle it ourselves."

Sam nodded but frowned a little. Nests that big were pretty uncommon and he felt like Bobby might be overstating their ability to easily do a job that big on their own. Three really skilled hunters might be able to do the job okay, but Jo hadn't been a hunter for long and all the action he knew Ellen had seen was from two months ago when she came along as back-up to try and stop the devil's gate from opening in Wyoming.

"Well, you're right, Bobby; with a nest that big, it's probably best to have as many hunters as you can get to help. I would say we're in, but after what just happened…"

Bobby kicked a pebble with his boot. "Yeah; after Ellen gets Jo calmed down a little bit, think we're just gonna go and take care of it real quick, then get back on the road and head out."


	2. Signs and Symbols

"Come on Jo, think about it!" Ellen hit the steering wheel in frustration. "The looks they give each other, how they're always in each other's personal space…"

"None of that has to mean anything!"

"The way Sam looks at Dean when Dean flirts with you?"

"That doesn't have to mean anything either!" She crossed her arms defiantly. It didn't; if they were in each other's personal space all the time then it could have been because they were just around each other in tight quarters and if sometimes Sam looked a little angry when Dean flirted with her, it might have been because he had a stick up his ass about getting to work right away on whatever case they were working and he was pissed at Dean for wasting their time. None of that had to mean that they were together and if her mom had suspected a while ago that they were then she should have had the decency to say so.

"Oh, come on sweetie! Sam's as jealous as the day is long whenever Dean even looks sideways at you and that's always been obvious to everyone."

Jo eyed her up suspiciously. "What do you mean, everyone?" Ellen quickly turned her gaze solely to the road, looking uneasy as if she'd realized, a little too late, the implications of what she'd just said. "You talked to Ash about this?" This was beyond belief. Was everyone gossiping about this relationship behind her back?

.

Ellen swallowed hard as she recalled that nearly forgotten conversation with their friend from so long ago. The boys had just left the Roadhouse minutes after their second meeting with them and she was standing behind the bar, clearing their beer bottles from off the counter and then wiping it down, when Ash came up, leaned against the counter and looked at her. "That Sam sure keeps a tight leash on his boyfriend," he said casually.

Ellen, who had been thinking the same thing, didn't turn to look at him and tried to keep her face impassive as she kept working. She looked down and began rubbing the rag she was holding against the surface of the countertop with extra gusto. "Those are John's boys. They're brothers."

Ash snorted amusedly. "Yeah, I look at my brother that way whenever he talks to pretty girls, too."

She stopped what she was doing and looked contemplatively at him. "Dean's a spitting image of John."

"Oh, I think they're brothers. But that's not all they are," he drawled slowly, "if you catch my drift."

Ellen nodded. "Don't tell Jo."

With that, Ash smiled and winked at her, then lightly slapped the counter and walked away, leaving Ellen to finish cleaning up.

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Now, years later, Ellen once again worked to keep her face impassive as she was confronted by her daughter. "Ash might have mentioned something to me once."

Jo stared open-mouthed. "And?"

"Nothing. It was really nothing, sweetie."

"Don't tell me it was nothing!"

"Why are you taking this out on me? You had to have seen the signs. Didn't you feel at least a little suspicious when Dean openly declared that he would rather die than live without Sam? He sold his soul just to get Sam back when he died!"

"So? They love each other!"

Ellen looked at her sadly. "Yes, they do."

Jo looked at her mother incredulously and threw her hands up in the air. "How can you just be okay with this?"

"I'm not saying I'm okay with it and I'm not saying I'm not okay with it. But like it or not, Sam and Dean are grown men who can make decisions on their own. And, apparently, they have decided to be in a relationship with each other. You don't have to like it, baby, but you are going to have to tolerate it to some extent because those boys are still a part of our lives and they're going to stay that way for as long as we can keep hunting and dodging death."

Jo sat back sullenly in her seat as they pulled back into the parking lot and she saw Sam standing outside and talking to Bobby. He was all tan, lean, hard muscle in the clothes he had chosen to wear for the day, as if he had decided to openly mock her with his good looks. She still couldn't believe that her sexual competitor was the brother of the guy she was interested in. As the car slowly came to a stop a few feet away from him, Sam looked up and locked eyes with her for a moment before ashamedly diverting his gaze. She glared at him. Sure, Sam was a pretty good-looking guy; Jo had seen that even from the very start, even if he wasn't the Winchester she wanted. But she had never, not in a million years, thought to be jealous or suspicious of his relationship with the object of her affections; after all, they were freaking _brothers_! Her mind involuntarily flashed back to the scene in the shower and she shuddered. If someone had told her that she would one day walk in on Dean with some guy's cock in his mouth she would have bet a million dollars and her favorite knife against it, but if they told her that she would walk in on Dean with _Sam's_ cock in his mouth…

Ellen looked disapprovingly over at her. "Stop staring at him like that; this day is unpleasant enough without that." She lightly tapped her fingers against Jo's face, giving her a slight yet reprimanding slap. "Stay in the car." With that, she got out and crossed the parking lot over to Sam.


	3. You Bitches Coming or Not?

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you like it and I'd really love a review!

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As Ellen approached wearing a warm, apologetic smile, Sam turned away from his conversation with Bobby and tried to work his unwilling facial muscles into a look mirroring hers but knew that he was at best only managing a very awkward, twitchy, lopsided grin. "Hey, Ellen."

"Sam." Without a moment's hesitation, she stepped into his space and gave him a hug. "I'm glad to see that you're still in one piece." Sam awkwardly wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It was really nice to get a warm, friendly hug from Ellen like this but, with Jo glaring at him through the windshield of her car like she was he couldn't help but feel like he was doing something wrong in hugging her back. Out of the corner of his eye he Saw Bobby look towards the car at Jo, but he quickly shifted his gaze back towards them and remained silent. Ellen finally let go of him and then stepped back. "I'm sorry; we shouldn't have shown up unannounced like this."

Sam blushed and looked away from both her and Bobby, deciding to turn his head to the left and focus on the tall maple trees lining the parking lot. Ellen and Bobby had now both apologized for dropping in without warning when they knew just as well as he did that the trio's sudden appearance on his and Dean's doorstep wasn't all that unusual. Hunters rarely adhered to social "norms" of politeness and courtesy and were therefore notorious for often times showing up either unannounced or on very short notice. But that day he and Dean had been stupid, forgetting to lock the door because their hands had been too busy ripping each other's clothes off the second they'd gotten into their room and now, because of their mistake, he was getting apologies as if he and Dean were a couple of settled down civilians being bothered by the neighbors at dinner time. "I, ah, don't worry about it. It's not your fault."

"Look, I'll cut right to the chase. This isn't something that I couldn't tell Dean, but I figured you'd listen to me a bit better than his stubborn ass. I just want you to know that what just happened doesn't change anything. John was like our family and so are you boys. Jo's, understandably, a bit upset right now, but I know she feels the same way. What I'm trying to say is, don't make yourselves scarce 'cause you don't think we wanna see you anymore. Because that's not true."

Sam stood there, feeling a bit dumbfounded at Ellen's unbelievable understanding. "Thanks, Ellen."

"You know, it might sound twisted, but I really am happy for you boys. Most people don't ever get to find what you and Dean have."

"Yeah, he's the love of my life." Sam's entire body suddenly felt on fire and his skin began to tinge red as he realized to his own horror that he'd just said that out loud. "You know, from the sounds of it, that nest is pretty big. I think Frank and Jarrett are just a couple of states away wrapping up some chuppacabra thing. If you're willing to put it off for a day, I can put out a call to them, see if they want to come along."

"No can do," Bobby broke in. "They got about five or six humans with them right now, draining them dry as we speak. We wait a day or two and at least a couple of 'em will be dead."

Sam turned to him. "Right, I understand, that's too bad, but it's a big nest, Bobby. I know you're saying you can take care of it, but you wouldn't have come out here if you didn't think you'd need Dean and my help. Even in the daytime, with a surprise attack, having only three of you is going to be risky. I understand that you gotta help those people, but you can't help anyone if you're dead."

Bobby opened his mouth to say something but then closed his mouth and looked over to the motel with a surprised look on his face. Sam and Ellen also followed his gaze and saw Dean, dressed in his dark blue jeans, faded black, short-sleeved, Metallica t-shirt, and, despite the heat, black biker boots, crossing the parking lot and heading towards them, wearing a look of angry defiance. He stepped up to the small group and stared at Ellen. "You got something to say? Go ahead and say it."

Sam's face twitched as he stared at Dean in discomfort. Hadn't he noticed how kind Ellen had been to him when he'd raced outside the motel room wearing only a towel? He wondered why, despite her reassuring, kind behavior, his brother was so quick to assume that Ellen's response would be that of condemnation. "Dean, it's okay."

Ellen looked amusedly at Dean. "I've got no interest in picking a fight with you boys."

Sam shot Dean a wide-eyed, warning look. "We were just talking about the vampire nest they're about to head in to. It's a big one, with maybe about thirteen vamps but Bobby seems to think they can take on the nest themselves."

Dean's face changed dramatically from defensive, to confused, to sudden understanding, and then it finally settled on embarrassed. His cheeks tinged slightly red as he realized that his behavior was very unwarranted. "Oh." He cleared his throat and then looked at Bobby. "Frank and Jarrett are just a couple of states away –"

"Yeah, I told them, but the vamps have a bunch of people holed up and being fed on, and Bobby doesn't think they'll make it too much longer."

Dean's mouth dropped open as he looked back and forth from Bobby to Ellen, and then finally, over at Jo as she pouted in the front seat. "Well, you can't go alone."

"We'll manage," Ellen said wryly.

"No! Ellen, I'm not going to let you. I mean it; I'm tired of going to funerals. I'm going."

Sam was a little shocked at Dean's sudden willingness to go on a hunt with Jo after what just happened, but he understood. Neither of them would ever forgive themselves if Ellen, Bobby, or Jo got hurt while they could have helped them. He nodded. "Yeah, me too; if you won't take anyone else's help, I think we're going to have to work together on this."

"Listen, boys, I appreciate your willingness to help and all, but I don't think that's such a good idea. At this point, if either of you came along, I don't know how it would go. You know, we all need to be able to keep our heads in the game and right now I think it might actually be more dangerous if you boys came along. Understand, it's nothing personal."

Dean looked shame-facedly down at the ground. "Yeah, I know. Sure, I get it."

.

Jo sat in the car, feeling outraged and dumbfounded. They were really going to choose between unnecessarily putting themselves in horrible danger or needless civilian death because of her? It was bad enough that, after fighting for hours about whether or not she could even go on the hunt, she'd won the argument against her mom, only to have her insist on coming along "for backup." Backup her ass; it was pretty clear to her that her mom hated hunting and would never volunteer to take a job if she felt like she had the option not to. Mom was just babysitting her as always, trying to control everything whenever she saw her precious little girl wandering too close to trouble. Just because her mom had been staying with her for the past couple of months since the Roadhouse burned down, that didn't give her the right to try and control her life again like she used to at the bar. She was twenty-three years old now; she shouldn't have to justify anything she did to her mother anymore! And now she'd been confined to the car like some grounded teenager while the 'grown-ups' had a talk about what they were going to do without even consulting her! To her mom, she was just a stupid kid and now Dean, Bobby, and Sam were treating her exactly the same way. For fuck's sake, walking in on what she did… _she_ was the victim here, but that didn't mean that she couldn't set aside her feelings, be professional, and work with Sam and Dean as hunters! Well, fuck all of them; she wasn't going to let anyone cater to her like she was an emotional teenager with a broken heart. She wasn't a child anymore and she was going to prove it.

Through the windshield, she saw Sam pat Dean on the back and then heard him say, "Is there anything we can do to help?" and at that she got out of the car and slammed the door. "Well, are you bitches coming with us or not?"


	4. A Bunch of Reckless Professionals

Thanks to "JustOnePogoStick" for her suggestion about Dean in the storyline and to "Twinchester Angel" for her help with characterization and her constant support.

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The whole group who had, up until that point, seemed to think that they were engaging in a conversation quiet enough for her not to hear, turned to stare at Jo as she stood beside the car, her hand resting on the rolled-down window and her nostrils flaring in rage. Dean, looking shocked, silently opened his mouth a couple of times and then exchanged a quick look with Sam, who nodded at him. Dean stared at him for a second and then nodded back, as if they were concluding some sort of silent discussion, and then he turned back to face her. "I think –" he began, but Ellen whipped her head around to shoot him a warning glare, effectively stopping his sentence in its tracks. He looked away from Ellen, then fake-coughed and cleared his throat. "I think we should let you guys talk this one out. Sam and I will be over…" he pointed in some vague direction to the right and then tugged at Sam by the elbow and his brother came away with him willingly. They finally stopped at a spot in the parking lot about twenty feet away from the group and then stayed there, silently talking to one another.

Ellen and Bobby watched them go and then Ellen turned towards her, anger evident on her face, while Bobby continued to stare wistfully back at the boys as if he wished he could be standing with them. Another warning look from Ellen and Bobby sighed and finally turned towards Jo, looking resigned and thoroughly miserable.

"Just exactly what the hell is wrong with you?" her mother asked her, phrasing it more like a statement than a question. "Hasn't this day been difficult enough?"

"Mom! What exactly do you want us to do? Traipse into that vampire nest all by ourselves and get us, plus all the victims trapped in there, killed?"

"Now, you know that's not gonna happen –"

"Are you kidding me? Twelve or thirteen vamps, and that's only as far as we know. They've been turning people like crazy lately, who's to say that a couple of the people they captured haven't already been turned? There could be even more of them by now. And, what, you want to go in there with three hunters armed with a few machetes?" She gestured an arm towards Sam and Dean. "Why do you think we came here to get their help in the first place? We need as many trained hunters on this as we can get!"

Ellen sighed. "Alright. Maybe you're right; we do need more people on this." She turned to Bobby. "Put out that call to Frank and Jarrett and I guess we'll just wait a day or two for them to wrap up their damn case and get over here."

Jo stared at her mother in open-mouthed shock. "What? No!"

Ellen turned to Bobby, who was making no attempt to either pull his phone out from his pocket or put his two cents into the conversation as he shifted his eyes back and forth between the two women standing in front of him as if he was watching a tennis tournament. "Well Bobby, you're fingers broken? Get a move on it!"

Bobby scrunched up his face in annoyance. "I aint your bitch. And, anyway, they're too far out; we'd be better off going with a couple of good hunters already _in_ the area."

Ellen looked at Bobby with a look of utter seriousness. "Jo can't handle those two coming along right now."

"Mom!" she screamed in frustration, "For god's sake, I'm twenty-three; I'm not a little girl anymore!" She resolutely stabbed a finger to her own chest. "Why don't you let _me_ decide what I can handle?"

Ellen cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're telling me that you're going to be able to do the job with Sam and Dean there after what just happened?"

"Why not? It's not like they're going to celebrate every decapitation with a make-out session afterwards!"

Bobby wrinkled his nose and grimaced as he was no doubt presented with a mental image much like her own, of Sam and Dean covered in blood, arms wrapped around each other, kissing each other so hungrily that it looked like they were trying to devour one another while still each still clutched a machete in one hand. "Well, at any rate, we gotta figure out what we're doing and head out; we're burning daylight. It's already 3:30 and it's going to take us a little while still to get there."

Ellen looked back and forth from Bobby to Jo and back again, looking completely torn as to what she wanted to do.

.

As Ellen, Bobby, and Jo began their conversation, Sam and Dean watched the three of them from across the parking lot. They were too far away to hear what exactly was being said and Sam, at least, was a little grateful for that. Jo was the only one whose voice he could sort of hear as she spoke passionately and gestured emphatically with her arms. Ellen just looked pissed as hell, and Bobby appeared like all he wanted to do was escape. He turned towards his brother. "Well, whatd'ya think?"

Dean stared angrily at his brother. "What do I think? I think that this whole situation sucks, that's what I think."

Sam nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"I mean, right now, I'm a little afraid to come near Jo while she has a weapon in her hands, but it's not exactly like we've got much of a choice. I mean, thirteen vampires versus three hunters? Bobby's getting reckless in his old age."

Sam snorted. "Says the guy who just last week almost let a werewolf rip his heart out just so he could get close enough to force-feed it silver."

Sam's tone sounded gentle and teasing but there was real tension and anger behind his words. They'd just worked a case involving a werewolf prostitute who was hunting down and turning her johns and the two of them were working out a way to poison one of the monsters by force-feeding it silver so they could trap and interrogate it and find out who was responsible for the sudden lycanthropy spike in the area. They hadn't come up with any great plans right away, but Sam was sure that they could have figured something out that was way safer than just walking right into the werewolf hunting ground and screaming, "white meat, come and get it!" which was exactly what Dean had done. Dean had, once again, just formulated his own plan at the last second, leaving Sam horrified at how close his brother had come to death when it was all over. He'd been doing that a lot in the two months since he'd sold his soul and Sam was getting fed up.

Dean glared at his brother. "It worked, didn't it? And I'm being serious here, Sam. We can't let them go this one alone. But whether they let us come or we have to sneak in to help, Jo might cut our heads off either way."

Sam sighed and nodded. Dean was right; they were dealing with bigger problems at the moment and would have to fight about Dean's recklessness later. "Okay. Well, at least she didn't shoot us."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Thanks, that's very comforting. You know that if we come, she can't come along, right?"

"Yeah, of course I know that. I thought we decided that right before Ellen shot you the death glare."

"Yeah, and that's what I was going to say –"

"But you're scared of Ellen," Sam teased.

"Shuddup."

At that moment, the three of them stepped apart and Ellen gestured as if she was calling them over to her. "Alright boys, pack whatever weapons you wanna bring; we're leaving in five."

Jo, Ellen, and Bobby began to turn to walk to their cars, but Dean held up his hand and shouted, "Wait!" and all three stopped and looked at him. Dean chanced one glance back at Sam, who tried his best to look supportive, and then looked back at the rest of the group. "Jo should sit this one out."

Jo stared at him in outrage. "What!"

"Sam and I happen to agree on this one. We should go and you should stay; you're head's not on straight right now and if you come along it'll just put us all in danger."

Jo squinted at them both. "Weren't you just saying that we need as many hunters as we can get?"

Dean spread his arms wide. "Hey, four is better than three!"

"Damn it, Dean! When are you going to stop treating me like I'm an idiot?"

Dean looked confused but after a couple of seconds he quickly caught on. "Oh, you're talking about back at that apartment building when I didn't want you to go off by yourself because you were an amateur." He took a step towards her. "And then you _insisted_ on going off by yourself and got yourself kidnapped by the ghost about thirty seconds later. Is that –"

Sam gruffly grabbed Dean by the arm and pulled him back. "Dean, stop! This isn't going to get us anywhere!"

Jo, however, stared defiantly at them both. "Well, I'm not an amateur anymore. And I know what I'm doing. So I'm coming. And we're going to take out that nest, like a bunch of professionals and then I'm going to kick both your perverted asses later."

Dean narrowed his eyes and smirked at her. "Okay, bring it on, sweetheart." His voice was suddenly so calm and even that it was a little scary. "But just remember, you asked for it."

"Balls!" Bobby growled. "Are you two done making us feel safe about this plan to bring everyone along or what?"

Dean and Jo gave each other one last hard glare and then Dean looked up at the worried faces of Bobby and Ellen. "Yeah, sorry. We'll be fine; take out that nest with no problem. Sam and I just need to do a weapons check and then we're good to go."

With that, Ellen, Jo, and Bobby reluctantly turned and began to make their way to their cars and Sam and Dean trudged back towards the motel, headed straight for the Impala. "Terrific," Dean grumbled under his breath. "Sam, do me a favor; the next time we walk into a motel room, don't touch me until we've locked the damn door, alright?"


	5. Homicial Thoughts

Perverted. Disgusting. Brothers. Dean hadn't heard those words lumped together, even in his own head, for a while but as they drove away from the motel and towards the nest behind Bobby, Ellen, and Jo, the sound of Jo's voice as she spat those words out to him swirled around inside his head nonstop. The muscles in his jaw bulged out slightly from keeping his mouth clamped shut and he gave the windshield a hard stare. If Jo wanted to fight with him about this, then bring it on. What he and Sam did together was their private business and it would have stayed that way if she had just friggin' knocked before she barged in and caught a free show. No one was going to tell him what he could and couldn't do with Sam. And if she so much as laid a finger on his little brother she was going to wish she'd never been born.

"What are you going to do, Dean?"

Dean looked over and saw his brother eyeing him up with increasing concern. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't think I like where your head's at right now."

Great. It would figure that Sam would break out the estrogen and want to talk about his feelings at a time like this, when they were getting ready to jump into a nest full of vampires. "I'm fine Sam, leave it alone."

"Dean, I heard her back there, too. I know it's hard to hear stuff like that, but –"

What the hell? Was he really trying to offer him comfort about this? Without warning, the words that had been swirling around in his head suddenly wrenched themselves free from his mouth before he could stop them from spilling out. "Like what? That we're a couple of disgusting, perverted, brothers just getting each other off?"

"Look, I'm just saying that it doesn't mean –"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!"

The car was quiet for a moment and when he looked over at Sam he caught him looking down broodily at his feet. When he spoke, his voice was small, almost a whisper. "You wanna end this, don't you?"

"What? No!" How could Sam possibly think that?

"Earlier when we were in the bedroom right before I stepped out to talk to Ellen, you didn't sound so sure."

Dean sighed. Alright, chick-flick moment right before a hunt initiated. "Alright, listen Sam, no, I don't like how Jo's treating us like we're a couple of friggin' monsters, but I know what we are and I know what we're not. You're stuck with me. I'm not ending anything. I'm sure."

Sam looked at him intently for a moment and then nodded. "Alright. Well, in that case, don't kill Jo."

"Huh?"

"I know the look, Dean. It only means one of two things and if you're not about to do something masochistic then that only leaves homicide."

Dean looked down towards the steering wheel. "As long as she stays away from you she's got nothing to worry about."

"Don't you think the vampires are the more pressing issue, here?"

"Don't worry; I'm gonna off a few vamps heads while we're there."

Sam shook his head and rested back in the seat. "Going on this hunt is such a bad idea."

.

Jo and Ellen parked their car between Bobby and Dean's amongst a cluster of trees at the edge of the property where the abandoned barn was located. An empty, flat field with tall grass surrounded every side of the barn, with the exception of an old weathered, wooden farmhouse laying several hundred yards to the west. They all stood by their cars, Sam and Dean in front of the Impala, her and her mom positioned to their right in front of their beat-up, red Plymouth Acclaim, and Bobby standing at the far right in front of one of his old junkers from the salvage yard. They were all armed with machetes as they cautiously looked out at the place and Bobby and Sam both had binoculars held up to their eyes, looking for any signs of movement from either building.

Dean turned to Bobby and Jo looked away, barely able to even look at him. Sam was his own brother! How could he fuck him? _How could he fuck him and not me?_ another part of her mind supplied.

"Anyone in the farmhouse?"

Bobby shook his head. "Heard there was a small family living there, the Cornwallises, husband, wife, and two kids, but they were probably the first victims the vampires took."

"I checked out the house yesterday afternoon when we were first investigating the case," Jo offered coolly, "and from the looks of it, no one has been there in weeks, probably since around the time the vampires showed up in town."

"Well, thank god you checked it out," Dean began sarcastically. "Did you just barge right –"

Jo balled up her fists at whatever smart-ass comment Dean was about to make, but before he could finish Sam quickly lowered his binoculars and stomped one of his large feet on one of Dean's. Dean, in turn, stifled a pained groan and shot Sam a death glare but didn't finish his sentence. Instead, he snatched the binoculars from Sam's hand and turned towards the barn. After a minute, he spoke again.

"Is there any way to get in or out besides the two large doors in the front and that one on the side?" he seemed to ask no one in particular as he continued to look out through the binoculars.

Beside her, her mom's calm voice traveled towards him across the ensuing silence. "Not that I saw when I came here with Jo yesterday."

Dean lowered the binoculars and looked over at Sam, who stared intently back. After a second, Dean frowned and shook his head and it didn't take Jo long to realize that they were once again having a silent conversation. Sam's eyes widened momentarily and then he slightly gestured his head to the left, towards the barn. Jo had no idea what in particular he was supposed to exactly be gesturing at, but apparently Dean, who gave a slight shrug of the shoulders and then nodded at him, knew exactly what he meant. She'd seen the two of them do this once or twice before back at the Roadhouse, but it had never looked so incredibly weird before. Back then it was actually kind of cool that they knew each other so well; after all, most people could know someone for a hundred years and not be able to read them like that. Now it was just…creepy. And it felt strangely intimate, as if she was watching something that she really shouldn't. She let her mind wander into thinking about whether or not they did this same thing during sex before she grimaced and quickly chased the thought away. After about five seconds of silent communication, Dean turned away from Sam and they both faced her, Ellen, and Bobby. Dean and shot everyone his trademarked serious intense, stare, complete with sucked-in cheeks and pouted lips. Whenever he did that, his lips always pouted out in the most ridiculous way, making them look…oh, damn it, look so damn _kissable_. For a split second she wondered if his lips were as soft as they looked until the image having seen them wrapped around Sam's cock not even an hour before brought her out of her fantasy and she nearly dry-heaved.

"I don't know if you guys saw this before, but Sam noticed that there's one place up top where there's no sunlight being let in in between the slats, so it looks like there's probably a second floor and a little loft up there, probably filled with more vamps. We're lucky that the only one way out where any of these things can escape without being noticed is the side door. We could have two of us go up top, two of us stay on the bottom floor, and then that allows one of us to stay right outside the door just in case one or two of them slips by us. Remember, if one of these suckers gets past us after they've caught our scent, they'll be able to track us everywhere. What do you guys think?"

How the hell did they manage to say all that to each other inside of five seconds?

Bobby nodded. "Knew I brought you boys along for a reason."

"Who's gonna stay behind?" Jo asked, feeling a little suspicious. Dean had tried keeping her out of the hunt already, so leave it to him and Sam to cook up a plan where she had to watch everyone hack up the nest while she stayed behind with nothing to do. Her mind drifted back to the image she had thought up before of the two brothers celebrating every decapitation with a make-out session and it made her feel that much more foolish for her earlier fantasies of how this hunt was going to go.

Dean once again looked to Sam and raised his eyebrows. Sam gave him a warning look and shook his head and then Dean's expression soured and he held up a fist, cradling it in his other hand. Jo thought he was going to slug Sam for a second, but then Sam also put out his fist in the same way and they beat their palms three times in unison and then Dean made a scissor sign while Sam's hand stayed in a tight fist. Dean rolled his eyes and Sam smiled and slapped him on the shoulder.

"I'll stay," Dean growled grumpily.

Bobby shook his head. "Dean, for once in your life, throw something besides scissors; Sam's been playing you like a fiddle in that game since he was old enough to walk."

Dean slung his machete over his shoulder. "Doesn't matter; we ready to go?"

As they walked out of the wooded area and towards the barn, Jo walked behind Dean and watched him as he walked in his usual swagger towards the door and felt herself become filled with rage. Why did the asshole have to be so damn good-looking? Why couldn't he have been like the million scuzzy guys who came into the bar who she'd hardly noticed and never wanted? The minute she'd learned that the hot guy who'd broken into the bar and who she'd just hit in the face was the son of the seemingly legendary John Winchester, she'd been impressed, maybe even a little star struck. Her mom had talked about John so many times: what a great guy he was, what a fantastic hunter, how he had two boys that he never could wait to get home to, that meeting part of the stories had felt kind of like an honor. But then when Dean had held his bleeding nose and asked her, almost fearfully, if she was going to hit him again, she decided that she really liked him as a person, too. About five minutes later as he flashed a smile at her and laid on the charm while her mom had already started treating him and Sam like family, she decided that she wanted him and had to have him. For the next two days, she'd thought nonstop about his green eyes, freckled nose, and wide smile while he and Sam were out killing time by hunting a rakshasa as Ash worked on finding some demon omens for them. As soon as Dean and Sam had come back from the hunt, Jo had listened to their exciting tales of death and heroism while she cleaned the wine glasses and imagined herself on the hunt with Dean. Dean gave her the occasional wink as he talked, and right then she had begun to think about what it would be like to marry a hunter, to leave the bar and just go travel the country with Dean. Oh, and Sam, of course. Sam would be there, too. He'd be great to hunt and spend some downtime with. He was a nice guy.

She was an idiot. Dean didn't want her. And the worst part was he never had. Even when they sat together at the bar the first time they met and he said, "look, normally I'd be hitting on you so fast that your head would spin, but lately..." and she'd finished for him with, "Wrong place, wrong time?" he'd agreed, but he didn't want her even then. He'd wanted Sam. And he'd used her for an ego boost. Well, fuck him. She was going to show him just how good she was. She was going to kill every fucking vamp in that nest with no help from anyone, especially not Sam. She was going to show him, as he watched from outside, just exactly what he was missing.

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Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up; I'm writing another fic and in it Jo responds somewhat differently to the boys' relationship because she's a little older and wiser and it's hard to jump from one Jo mindset to another. With that in mind, please let me know if there's anything that's confusing or out-of-character. Thanks, and reviews are love!

I also really wanna thank **Laera Draconian** for her feedback on characterization with Jo. I just updated this again and I think her advice helped me make this much better. Thank you so much!


	6. Alpha

I just want to thank everyone SO much for their patience waiting for the next chapter to come out. As usual, I re-wrote this chapter until I couldn't stand to look at it anymore. I hope you all enjoy! And, as always, please, Please, PLEASE let me know if you see anything you really like or hate, grammar mistakes, plot holes, etc. Thank you!

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As everyone waded through the tall grass surrounding the barn, Jo sped up her pace until she passed her mom and then Dean, Sam, and Bobby in her hurry to arrive first at the side door. She grabbed the rusted door handle and firmly gripped the cold, rough metal in her hand as she waited for the others to approach. She was going to take the lead on this and Dean was going to stand in the doorway and watch her. He was going to see what she could do. The rest of the group quickly caught up, each of them shooting her looks that ranged from confused, to fearful, to, in Dean's case, even angry, as she swung open the weather-beaten, wooden door on its rusted hinges as quietly as she could and was the first to creep inside.

She watched as the door shut behind everyone, then clutched her machete and spun around to survey the barn and her eyes widened in shock and horror at the dead body that greeted them at the entrance. It wasn't that she'd never seen a dead body before; clearly, no one in the group was new to that experience, even in all stages of decomposition. But this victim was…not quite like anything she'd ever seen before. Judging by the lack of wrinkles on her blood-stained face or around her glassy eyes she was a young woman, probably in her early to mid-thirties. Thick ropes were tightly wrapped around her jean-clad ankles as she hung upside down from a rafter on the ceiling, her limp and lifeless fingers mere inches away from scratching at the dirt and straw floor underneath. Her blue and white plaid shirt had been ripped open, exposing the bare, pale skin of her torso and stomach, which had been slit open so deeply that her intestines and entrails were lying in a messy, multi-colored pile right where they had fallen beside her. Her neck had almost been gnawed completely through and between the pieces of shredded flesh little flecks of white bone from her spine could be seen. Blood was still slowly dripping from the corpse and draining into an oil pain. Jo's stomach churned in disgust and she covered her mouth to muffle the gasp she'd involuntarily let out. She heard someone shuffle their feet behind her and then turned to see Sam giving the floor one of his long-suffering stares, her mom staring at the body in transfixed horror, Bobby looking off in a random direction towards the ceiling, and Dean holding a hand to his mouth while his shoulders jerked forward at random intervals as if he was silently dry-heaving.

She turned back to the body and tried to see past the horror of the obvious pain and torture that had clearly taken place less than twenty-four hours ago. She had to be unemotional so she could prove how tough she was. She had to be strong, the strongest, the best. Better than all of them. _Better than Sam,_ another part of her mind whispered. She could hold it together; it was part of leading a team, which, she decided, she was doing. Alright then, first things first; she had to look around and see what they were up against. There were ten vamps on this floor, with all of the hammocks on the left side of the doorway and arranged into two rows of five. To the right of the door and the swinging body, stood a small, crudely built wooden enclosure with a padlock on it. It looked newly built, probably by one of the vampires and was most likely the place where these things were storing their food. She was going to have to free them as soon as possible before they ended up like… her eyes involuntarily moved back over to the hanging victim and felt a twist in her stomach and a pang of guilt. How long ago had this woman died? Was it a day ago while they were driving to the state, or just an hour ago while they were all arguing instead of coming to the barn right away? How long did this victim scream with no one around to help her? Her eyed flickered back to the pile of intestines on the floor, felt the bile in her own stomach begin to rise up, and had to once again look away. These vampires were sadistic; she'd never seen any of them treat a victim so cruelly.

About fifteen feet to the left of the corpse, the nearest hammock began to swing slightly and from within it the top of a dark-haired head turned to the right as the vampire laying inside moved in its sleep. She held her machete up. Okay. She had to focus. She couldn't let herself get hung up on the dead victim; nothing could help her now. She needed to take care of the vamps and make sure they were all dead inside the next fifteen minutes. Towards the back of the barn a wooden ladder led to the second floor, which had to be that second floor Sam was talking about earlier, the place where the rest of those bastards were snoozing. Okay then; she'd start from the bottom and then work her way up to the top.

She kept her steps light to avoid making noise as she speedily ran over to the first hammock. The vampire, a woman who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, had a small, serene smile stretched across her lips as she slept. Without hesitation, Jo swung her machete down hard on the monster's neck and felt her freshly sharpened blade cleanly slice through the soft skin and tough muscle, then finally felt the hard snap of the vertebrae as she moved completely through. Several hammock strings were also severed by the blow and the head fell to the ground with a wet _thwack_. Blood spattered on her shirt, jacket, neck, face, and hands and she resolutely kept her mouth shut to avoid any of the sickeningly hot fluid from entering her body. It took a lot more than a few drops to turn someone, but hunters knew better than to risk it.

Without even pausing to look at her kill, she moved on to the next hammock. This time she was looking down at the sleeping face of a young man in his early twenties with longish brown hair. He was starting to wake up though, his nose working furiously as he already smelled the fresh blood coming from the dead body beside him. She swung her blade down with a vengeance and within seconds the head was severed and on the ground, its nose still twitching frantically. _Alright then_, she told herself, _two down and eight to go on this floor and three more still left upstairs_. She heard the scuffling of feet behind her as the others hurried to get to their positions. She'd gone ahead of the plan and started killing before they could get into their places, but it wouldn't be long before they started offing vamps heads as well, so she was going to have to work fast if she wanted to get all of the bastards herself. Maybe she should have barricaded the door so that no one else could have come in, but then Dean wouldn't have been able to watch her work. As she paused to wipe the blood from around her eyes and off her face with the sleeve of her jacket, she looked up at the doorway, hoping to meet his gaze, but he wasn't looking at her; his eyes were instead following an object moving somewhere off to the right. She whipped around and saw Sam moving up the ladder to the loft with her mom at the bottom and ready to follow him. Even when she was kicking ass, all he could do was look at _Sam_! What the hell was wrong with him? _He doesn't want you; he never did._ She felt an actual pain in her chest as the realization of Dean's second rejection that day sunk in. _You're not good enough. You're not a good enough hunter; Sam's better. You're not smart enough; Sam's fancy college educated. He's probably a better lay than you, too. Let's face it; Dean would rather fuck his own brother than even touch you._ She ground her teeth in anger and offed the next head with an angry grunt.

From behind her she heard a swift chopping noise, followed by a thud and she turned around to see that Bobby had just hacked off a head several feet away from her, looking all business as walked joylessly from his first kill over to the next. _Best, strongest, kill them all._ She abandoned the young female vampire she was about to kill and ran over to him, then jumped in front of the hammock he was about to slice through and swung down on the vamp sleeping inside with extra gusto, only narrowly missing Bobby with her blade and splattering them both with blood. Bobby jumped back, wide-eyed, and turned his head to stare indignantly over at Dean for a couple of seconds before he turned back to her and snapped his fingers a couple of times in front of her face. She looked up from the twitching body of her kill and looked up at him. _What the hell is wrong with you, _he mouthed, looking concerned and a tad angry. She looked down and walked around him as if nothing had happened. Bobby rolled his eyes and shook his head and then began to make his way over to the opposite side of the row of hammocks as she swung and killed the next vamp. The muscles in her arm burned and ached as the machete sliced through layers of skin, muscle, nerves, tendons, and bone. The head of the sixth decapitated vamp fell to the ground. She had to keep moving and work through the pain; she could ice her shoulder later as she sat in the motel room with her mom while Sam and Dean fucked each other in the room next door. Tears sprang up in her eyes as she moved over to the next hammock.

She raised her machete and, ignoring the pain in her arm was about to swing, when there was a woman's sudden blood-curdling scream upstairs, followed by the sound of boards breaking and the shattering of glass.

"Ellen!" The sound of Sam's shout filled the air, adding to the noise created by the terrified scream, which carried on for a second longer before there was a chop, a cut-off yelp, and a then loud thud, followed by deafening silence.

Someone was snarling beside her. She turned her head and saw the vampire she was about to kill, wide awake and growling at her with its entire set of vampire teeth extended. She swung her arm and swiftly took off the vamp's head, but it was too late; the scream from upstairs had awakened the whole nest and the four remaining vamps on the bottom floor were crawling out of their hammocks, teeth exposed and furious.

From directly behind her, Sam quickly descended the ladder, tightly gripping his bloodied machete. Vampire number nine, a short, snarling male with wide, rage-filled eyes jumped from the top loft behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder but he quickly spun out of the creature's grasp, swung, and cleanly chopped off its head.

Bobby quickly ran the few steps over to her and Sam. "What the blue blazes happened up there?"

"The smell of the blood already woke up the vamps before we got up there. They threw Ellen through the boarded-up window!"


	7. Inside the Nest

Bobby's mouth dropped open as he stared at Sam, perfectly mirroring the young man's expression of frantic worry and then the pair of hunters simultaneously turned their heads to stare at Jo, who gaped back at them in horror as she grasped the reality of Sam's statement. _She's dead. She's fucking dead. She was thrown by a super-charged vamp through a second story window. She's dead._ They smelled the blood. Not the old, unappetizing blood from the dead victim, but fresh blood, from the newly decapitated vamps. The smell of the blood that she'd put in the air, too soon, before everyone was ready. Her still upheld and blood-soaked machete trembled violently in her fingers, her ears turned red and throbbed as the sound of pumping blood filled them, her face flushed, and her throat tightened.

"Jo?" Sam's eyes were open wide, eyebrows brought together worry, frowning mouth opened slightly. "Jo, hey – hey – hey, are you okay?" He shyly outstretched his hand, reaching for her shoulder and she, although repulsed at the very idea of him touching her, was still about to let him when a sudden loud, fury-laden scream from behind her made their them both jump and snap their heads up to turn towards the source of the sound.

"No!" Dean was still near the doorway but quickly barreling towards them, a look of rage evident on his face as he raised his machete high. "Sam, look out!" She and Sam whipped around just in time to see a close-up of the buggy eyes and extended teeth of a young, male vampire who had silently descended from the top loft and was only inches away from Sam, right before Dean practically slid in front of his brother and decisively swung his blade, bringing it down right on the creature's neck. It all happened so fast that she missed the actual decapitation; the next moment she smelled iron, felt the hot, sickening spray of blood spatter on her skin, and heard two thuds as the head fell, shortly followed by the body, its limbs crumpling to the ground. Dean then turned to Bobby, looking right past Jo as he spoke. "Why are there so damn many of them?" he demanded, standing defensively in front of Sam and holding his machete at the ready for any vamp who dare cross his path.

Sam cast his eyes up to the loft. "There weren't three of them upstairs like we thought; there were seven!"

Seven? That would make the nest…seventeen vampires! She'd never even heard of a nest that big before. And it also meant that even after Bobby and Sam and taken out a few and she'd killed so many that her shirtfront was drenched in blood spatter, they were still outnumbered with seven of them left! She remembered what she had said to her mom near the beginning of the hunt; _who's to say that a couple of the people they captured haven't already been turned? There could be even more of them by now. And, what, you want to go in there with three hunters armed with a few machetes?_ Oh god. This was her fault. She killed her mom. The sound of small pieces of glass falling to the ground and shattering could be heard above, quickly followed by a loud thud as something landed on the ground outside. It was one of the vamps from the nest jumping out of the window behind her mom, had to be. They smelled the blood. The blood of newly decapitated vamps, the blood of a still living but bleeding hunter outside. They could hear the sound of a heart beating from a quarter of a mile away and whether they wanted revenge or food, jumping out through the window to go after a dead body would make very little sense. She was alive. But not for long.

"Ellen?"

"Mom!"

Her and Dean's shouts filled the barn, but they were met with no answer from outside. They turned to each other and the look in his determined and frightened eyes told her that, for the first time all day, they were finally on the same page. Saving her mom was first priority. As they turned towards the exit though, she found that the four of them were surrounded by the three remaining vampires from the first floor, who circled them with looks of menacing rage. The hunters crowded into each other's space and held their weapons up defensively in front of them as the circle became tighter. Mom. She had to get to her mom. She was alone outside and bleeding, completely defenseless outside with some vamp no doubt feeding on her right at that moment. The vampire closest to her bumped her small foot against the head of one of the dead and looked down into the lifeless fact of a young man whose lips had still been upturned into a peaceful, dreamy smile when he'd died. The monster's face turned into a grimace and she stopped moving, leaving an extra wide opening and that was when Jo took her chance. She charged through the opening before the thing could react and sped towards the barn door.

_Alive, alive, alive, alive_. The same word screamed in her head over again. She was halfway to the door when a flash of tan and black suddenly appeared before her and she ran into something warm and hard, only to realize in the next second that it was a vampire wearing torn black jeans and no shirt. He had jumped down in front of her from the top loft and was now standing in front of her, blocking her way to the exit. He had one thick eyebrow raised in amusement and, as gave her a lopsided smirk that almost made his crooked nose look in proportion to the rest of his face, he didn't even look annoyed that he'd just been awakened to half his nest being slaughtered.

"Where you think you're going, honey?"

She grunted in exertion as she wildly swung her blade but the vamp caught her by the hand and gripped it so tight that she felt her bones might break. She dropped the weapon, hearing it clatter to the ground. The vamp gave her wrist an extra hard squeeze and her eyes crossed as hot, fiery pain shot up her arm, making it jerk involuntarily in his grip. He looked at her hungrily and then opened its mouth, displaying a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. In a last-ditch effort, she swung her leg out in a sweeping motion, trying to take the thing's legs out from under him, but once again he was too fast. With his free arm he reached down and grabbed her leg, digging his fingers in so hard that she winced at the feeling of four half-moon shaped puncture wounds being shaped into her flesh.

"Alright, enough foreplay then, I guess."

The vamp leaned in towards her neck and she closed her eyes as she readied herself for the painful bite that was to come when suddenly, her face was hit with a sickening, hot fluid that smelled of iron. Blood. She opened her eyes and saw the headless vampire drop to the ground and Sam standing behind it with his newly sharpened machete at the ready. He swung and killed another vampire as it ran at them from the side and then wiped his hair from out of his face and turned to Bobby.

"Go get Ellen, she can't protect herself and she needs a hospital!"

"You bitch!" She whipped her head around and saw Dean rubbing at a deep scratch mark on his face, the culprit no doubt the headless petite blonde vamp lying on the ground at his feet.

Bobby took one look around him, first at Dean who was swinging his machete as he tauntingly beckoned the three vampires surrounding him and then at Sam as he stood in front of Jo with one hand on his upheld machete and the other stretched out defensively in front of her.

Sam shot him an incredulous look. "Go!"

The older hunter gave them all one last worried look before he turned quickly ran out of the barn before he could be accosted by any more vampires. As he ran out the door, two more vamps, the last of the nest, jumped from the loft above. One followed Bobby out the door and the other one stood by the exit, sealing the rest of them in.

"Oh yeah, come on Ugly!"

Jo whipped around at the sound of Dean's voice behind her. He was holding his machete up at chest level with one hand while he used the fingers on his free hand to tauntingly beckon a large vamp who was moving in on him faster than the other two. The vamp, a big blonde guy in a tight-fitting, dirty white t-shirt and fitted light blue jeans and who had a crew-cut haircut a squared face, massive under bite, and jowls that made him resemble a pit-bull, looked down with a pained face at the bleeding corpse of the blonde female vamp Dean had just decapitated. Dean smirked at him.

"Aw, I'm sorry; was that your girlfriend?" He lightly touched the body on the shoulder with the toe of his boot. "Doesn't look like she's gonna be ready to suck face with you any time soon."

The vampire screamed in rage and charged. Dean swung his blade like a baseball bat, leaving a deep cut on the vampire's arm, but missing his neck. The thing tackled Dean, making him lose his footing, fly backwards, and hit the ground on his back. He raised his machete as best he could and tried holding it to the monster's throat, but the creature grabbed Dean's hand and banged it forcefully on the ground, one, two, three times and he grimaced in pain and finally lost his grip on the blade. It fell from his hand and the vamp then reached over and pushed it out of Dean's grasp.

Jo and Sam both made a move to run in, but were stopped by the other two vampires, who turned on them and moved in, teeth extended and ready to kill. Sam slashed at the closest vamp, a thin woman in her mid-forties with long black hair, but she dodged the swishing blade once, twice, and bared her teeth at him. The other, a young man, advanced on Jo, blocking her way, and she held up her bloodied weapon defensively to keep him from attacking. She watched helplessly as Dean struggled with the vamp on top of him, pushing against the thing's shoulders and barely able to keep its teeth from tearing at his throat. He shoved at the thing and raised his hip, trying to flip their bodies, but the huge vamp had him hopelessly pinned. The thing laughed and sneered while Dean frantically wriggled and gasped beneath him.

"Dean!" Sam was clearly frantic as he slashed at the vamp blocking his way, trying anything to even just get it out of his way so he could get to his brother and save him.

The big vamp on top of Dean turned to look at Sam and then looked back at Dean with childish glee. "So, that's your mate?" He picked Dean up by the shoulders and banged his head against the hard-packed dirt beneath them, making Dean groan and wince in pain but he still solidly pushed his hands up against him to keep them from getting too close. "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna kill you right in front of him."

Dean's face twitched into a cocky grin. "Alright Jowls, just make it fast; I'm tired of staring at your ugly mug."

Jowls frowned, the long teeth from the bottom row of his mouth poking out over his lips. "No. You know what? I changed my mind. You killed my mate in front of me," he clenched his jaw so hard that his face shook and then he spoke through his teeth, "so I'm going to do the same to you." Dean made a pained _oomph_ noise as the thing once again banged his head against the ground. "I'm going to make you watch as I kill him, nice and slow. I'm not going to bite him; at least, not right away. He's awfully pretty, isn't he? So I think first, I'm going to cut at that pretty skin of his–"

Dean gritted his teeth in anger. "Don't you dare touch him, you son of a bitch!" Without warning, he sprang from him position on the ground with newfound strength and the surprised vamp fell backwards underneath him. Dean took advantage of the split second he had during that time and grabbed his machete. The black-haired vampire turned to face the fight and hissed in anger for a split second before Sam swung and sliced off her head with a single clean strike. Dean killed the ugly vampire beneath him at the same time, chopping at his head so violently that it sliced through several inches of dirt beneath, only stopping when it hit a rock with a resounding thud. Dean wrenched his weapon from out of the dirt and stood up, his entire shirtfront and jacket soaked in blood from the last close-range kill. He kicked the head of the black-haired vamp that Sam had just killed aside and stood in front of him holding his blade up in front of him at chest-level, eyes full of murder and rage. He swung at the vamp that had been attacking Jo, but the creature swung around and dodged at the last minute, then took advantage of the split second where Dean didn't have the machete held up protectively in front of his chest and kicked him hard in the stomach. Dean doubled over in pain and then the thing went for Sam with his fangs exposed.

The monster guarding the door ran in and headed straight for the shed where the victims were being kept and, with trembling fingers, pulled a key out from under her t-shirt and fit it in the padlock. What the hell? Did she think she was going to be able to hide out among the victims? That they wouldn't recognize her? Jo ran over to her and the thing barely had time to yank the padlock open before her head was on the floor, a thick trail of blood leading away from the body beside it. Jo reached up to remove the padlock. It wasn't completely safe yet for them to be milling around, but she could at least get inside and assess everyone's injuries so she and Dean could take the worst of them to the hospital while Sam stayed behind and took care of the ones who didn't need immediate medical attention.

"No!"

Sam's voice resonated through the barn, quickly followed by the sound of quickly approaching feet. She turned her startled head and held her machete up defensively, expecting to see the last vampire running up to her, having escaped Sam and Dean and wanting to re-secure its food source, but was surprised to instead see Sam's tall, wide-shouldered frame barreling towards her for a split second before he wrapped his arms around her and then tackled her to the ground. She hit the ground on her back, but to her surprise found that, even with Sam's massive frame and crushing weight on top of her, the fall didn't hurt; he had his arms wrapped protectively around her, making sure that they took the brunt of the shock.

As he lay panting from his run and still cradling her in his arms, she beat her hands against his chest in fury. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

His face quickly went from confusion to embarrassment and he let her go and got quickly to his feet. His voice was loud and urgent as his feet beat against the ground in his desperation to cover the few steps back to the door of the shed. "You can't open that door!"

"What? Why?"

Her question was answered soon enough when Sam was hit hard in the face with the door as he tried to shut it. The unlocked padlock flew free and landed on the dirt beside the door. Blood flowed freely from his nose and down Sam's face, but the knock only made Sam hesitate for a second before he was once again pushing on the door, trying to force it closed.

From across the room, Dean swung his machete and once again narrowly missed as the vamp stepped sideways and let out a cold, cruel laugh. He narrowed his eyes and once again assumed his defensive stance, not daring to move his eyes away from him. "Sammy, better keep that door closed!"

Jo looked from one brother to the other, wondering what they could have figured out that she was still missing. "They're not victims?"

Sam had the door shut and was standing with his back up against it as whatever it was on the other side pounded so hard that the door violently shook behind him. Sam gritted his teeth and the muscles in his arms bulged and flexed from exertion. "No! They're vampires!"


	8. Mates

Five minutes after the door had flown open and she, Dean, and Sam were shoved to the ground, lined up and made to kneel on the ground with their hands being tied behind their back, she still wondered what she was missing. How could these things be vampires? The six creatures had burst from the shed held, attacked them, and were at the moment holding them down and circling them and she still had trouble believing it. Since when were vampires kept locked up by their own nest? And really, these things didn't act much like vampires. They had the quickness and superhuman strength of them but walked around nervously and unsure of themselves like gawky teenagers coming into puberty, which, after examining them, a couple of them looked young enough that they could have been. Beside her, Dean stared with unabashed hatred at a tall, small-framed redhead who was standing in front of them. Beside him, Sam's look was smug, which she could only assume was a bluff, given the situation they were in.

"So you're the babysitter, huh?" Sam sniggered.

The vamp smirked, then got down to her knees in front of him and brought her face down to his neck. Dean growled and fought his restraints, but she ignored him, put her nose up to Sam's skin, and breathed in deep. She licked the crook of his neck and Sam winced and began to try to rock away from her but she laughed and then pulled away and brought her face about an inch away from his.

"So, beauty and brains." She swept her hand over his face, pushing back a lock of his hair and he shook his head away from her grasp, which only made her smile wider. "I like that."

She moved away from Sam and then got up close to Dean, brought her nose to his chest and inhaled, then nodded to herself and came over to Jo.

As she brought her face into Jo's space, Jo shook her head emphatically. "No. No, I don't swing that way."

The redhead laughed and then brought her nose to the top of her head and inhaled. "Don't worry; I don't, either."

When she finally backed off and stood up the male vampire Dean had just been fighting approached, sporting a deep cut on his cheek. He looked down at Dean and scowled hatefully at him. "He killed Adrian."

The redhead glanced around with sorrowful eyes at the carnage in the barn. "I know. They killed everyone."

He pointed a dirty finger in Dean's direction. "I want to kill his mate."

The redhead looked from the vamp over to Jo and back again. "Fine." She waved her hand dismissively. "Kill the girl and him too, if you want." She pointed at Sam. "But I want to keep the big one."

"But Greta, the big one is his mate."

The redhead, Greta, gave the other vamp a bemused look. "No, he's not."

"I heard Eric talk to him about it and I tell you, they are."

"But that's impossible; their blood smells the same."

The male vampire's eyes went from confused, to shocked, to gleeful all inside of five seconds. He got down on his knees in front of Dean, grinning like an idiot. "So, you've got a family kink, huh?" Dean scowled at him. Never losing his smile, the vamp nodded his head towards Sam. "Cousin?" He paused for a moment and laughed when he got no response. "Nephew? Brother?" Dean's lips and nose twitched a little in agitation as he continued to give the vamp the same hateful look. The thing laughed and slapped his thigh. "That's it! Brother, huh? Well, your parents must be very proud. So, tell me, what's it like to fuck your own brother?"

"Go to Hell."

The vamp gave Sam an appraising look and then turned back to Dean. "Well, he sure does have a purdy mouth," he said, horribly mimicking a southern accent. Dean rolled his eyes but the vamp seemed unperturbed. "Does his mouth look like your mama's, maybe? You – you think about fucking your mama when you're with him? Or maybe your daddy?"

"You're sick."

The creature held up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I'm not the one fucking my brother; I'm just trying to learn how it works. So, how does it work? How do your Mommy and Daddy feel about their own kids sodomizing each other?" Dean's eyes leveled on him but he still said nothing. The vampire sniggered and then cocked his head to the side. "Are you the top or the bottom?" Dean's eyes became harder and his mouth and nose twitched so hard that they trembled. "I'll bet you're the bottom. Yeah, all that macho rage of yours bottled up to hide the fact that you just love to take it up the ass." The thing turned his head to look appreciatively at Sam. "I've never been much into guys myself, but I think I can see the appeal. He's very pretty." He ran a dirty finger along Sam's jaw and smiled wider when Sam tried to lean away from him. "Except that I would top. So, what would happen if I got your brother down on his knees –"

"You son of a bitch!" Dean tried to lunge for him but his restraints held him too firmly in place and he toppled to the floor. "You touch him and I'll fucking kill you, you hear me! I will find a way to kill you!"

The thing laughed again as Dean worked to get back up without the use of him arms and once he finally managed to move back up into a kneeling position, the thing leaned forward to saw something, but Greta put her arm in front of his face. "Okay, I think that's enough friendly banter for now. Take the others and put them back in the shed."

He frowned, clearly upset over his fun being ruined, but walked away. "Alright everyone," she heard him call out from behind her, "It's naptime. Come on, everyone back."

Jo stared open-mouthed at Greta and then turned to Dean and Sam. "What the hell is going on?"

Sam kept his eyes constantly on Greta as he spoke. "She's leading the nest to rural areas so she can turn families. That's why the nest is so big." He jerked his head at Greta. "You've been doing this for a while now, haven't you?"

Greta grinned at Sam. "Like I said, beauty and brains."

Jo creased her brow and looked at Sam, hating how he was still a step in front of her. "But then why keep some of them locked up?"

Sam turned to Jo to acknowledge her before he glared once again at Greta. "They're the newbies – my guess is that they're the Cornwallis family."

Greta jerked her head nonchalantly to the hanging body near the door. "Minus one member."

Jo gaped at her in horror. Beside her, Dean's face turned intensely angry and serious, while Sam's face twitched into a cruel half-smile as he narrowed his eyes. He let out an angry snort. "You're kind of evil even for a vampire, you know that? We _knew_ there was something wrong as soon as we saw that body. You don't just drain the victims dry; you gut one of them so you can feed the new vampires the dead blood to make them sick and keep them under control, don't you?"

Greta shrugged. "Well, only until they're _compliant_."

"Son of a bitch." Jo turned to Dean and saw his eyes flashed with sudden understanding. "That's why you killed her; because she wouldn't let you turn her children into monsters. And – and that's why you were so savage with the attack. You wanted to scare them into not fighting you, you sadistic bitch."

"'Monster' is kind of a harsh word, don't you think? I'm doing them all a favor; I'm giving them _immortality_. You'd just be surprised at how many parents want to fight you about that, though."

"Well, you butchered a mom like an animal in front of her kids; it's kind of hard not to call you a monster."

She squatted in front of Dean. "They are animals, sweetie." She grinned wide, showing all her teeth. That's all any of you are until you're turned; game." She nodded her head towards Sam. "He's really your mate?" Dean's face turned hard, exactly like it had with the vampire who'd taunted him just a few minutes ago and he nodded. She shook her head. "Too bad; I really liked him. And I've always wanted a pet." She turned back to Dean and laughed when she saw the hateful, angry gleam in his eyes. "Oh, come on. I _had_ to kill her. If I'd turned her then she would have been as strong as me and then what could I do? I'd have had to fight her to the death that way, and that would have just been an inconvenient waste of time. And what would have been the good of keeping her alive and human?" She stood up. "You know, new vampires are about the blood-thirstiest things I've ever seen. If I'd kept her alive then one of her kids, or her husband, or one of her friends who was visiting when we came would have killed her anyway." She looked over at the hanging body before quickly turning back to them. "Although I do regret wasting all that blood; now they're all hungry and don't have any humans to feed on. At least, they didn't until you showed up."

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I love you all and thank you for still reading. Please review? *Gives you the Sam puppy-dog look* Please, just…please.


	9. Semper Sodales

I really want to apologize to everyone who has been waiting for this update – I know it's been a while and I never intended for you all to wait this long. Also, a little FYI – I have this story under "Drama/Romance" but "Drama/Adventure" seems more fitting. I'm keeping it "Drama/Romance" for this post just in case any of you were using the Romance genre to find this story but from here on out it won't show under "Romance" so just be warned.

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Using her fingertips, Jo slipped a small, silver serrated spade out from her back jeans' pocket and began to fray the ropes binding her wrists. About ten feet away a machete lay on the ground and it was a long-shot, but if she could reach it, using it was the best chance any of them had for survival.

Beside her she heard Dean's growly, angry, whiskey-scratched voice say, "Great, you wanna kill us, then do it; let's get this show on the road. The sooner the better, because, honestly, I don't think I can stand another minute of you."

Panic gripped Jo's heart. What the hell was Dean doing? Whatever they did, they all needed to avoid getting into that shed. They were all trained hunters but, even with whatever small weapons that they might have managed to hide on their persons, there was no way the three of them were going to be a match for six bloodthirsty vamps.

"You think you're tough, huh?" Greta eyed him with a fake amused smile plastered to her pale freckled face that poorly covered her growing exasperation and tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear in a frustrated motion.

"Well, let's see, I just sawed through your whole nest so…" He gave her a cocky grin and nodded. "Yeah, I think I am."

The smile stayed on her face but she narrowed her eyes menacingly. "You damn hunters, you're all alike; cocky, sadistic assholes, every single one of you. This isn't my first time running into your kind. You call us monsters but us, we just feed; it's pure instinct just like you eat a burger or a piece of veal. But you, no, you enjoy killing; I'll bet you get off on it, even." She nodded her head towards Sam. "I'll bet every time you finish one your little hunting trips it makes you so hard that fuck your brother here against the front door because you can't even wait to get over to the bed."

Dean cocked his head to the side and lifted one side of his smile a little higher than the other. "Okay, Freud, whenever you're done psychoanalyzing me, why don't you look at yourself in a mirror when you're asking who really likes to kill, huh? I mean, Missus Cornwallis over there?" He jerked his head towards the dead body. "I've never even seen a deer gutted that brutally. And by the way, to answer your question, no, I don't 'get off' on killing things. I just have to because otherwise soulless, bloodsucking, parasites like you would be everywhere." Her smile faded and she cast him a dark look, which made Dean give her a cruel grin. "You're no better than leeches."

Jo gaped at him in horror. Greta was becoming increasingly angry with Dean's every word and if he didn't shut up soon, the vamp was no doubt going to find some even more painful way for them to die than just being drank to death by newborn vampires. Then Dean surreptitiously shifted his eyes towards her and made a little cutting motion with his fingers behind his back and Jo at last understood Dean's plan; he saw what she was doing and was trying to distract the vamp. She worked harder and hoped he could keep it up long enough for her to cut her ropes. In very little time, she was halfway through and building hope when behind her, however, the door to the crude, lean-to shed closed and Jo felt a sinking feeling of dread. No doubt the male vamp was going to come right back to them after having gotten the newborns away and under control and keeping two vampires distracted and oblivious to her motions was going to be way more difficult.

Sure enough, as if on cue she heard his voice up next to her ear. "Well, well, what have we got here?"

In the next instant, she felt a sickening crunch followed by searing pain as the male vampire twisted her wrist the whole way around. Her eyes crossed and she cried out in pain.

He laughed. "Now, now." He squeezed her wrist harder and Jo felt like one of her wrist bones might actually break through the surface. A tear slid down her cheek and she groaned. "Mm, I like this one; she makes noise." He grabbed her by the hair, roughly jerked her head back and swiped his tongue along her carotid artery. "You wanna make some more noise for me, sweetie?"

Despite the throbbing in her wrist and the new pain in her neck from having it jerked back so forcefully, Jo worked her mouth into an angry, straight line and kept defiantly silent. Her eyes felt like they could cross and her wrist was already beginning to swell and push painfully against her restraints, but she would not give in. She slid her eyes over to him and gave him a hateful look. _Fuck you_, _I'm not feeding into your sick pleasure_. The vamp laughed, then let go of her and smacked her hard on the cheek.

Greta grinned but gave him a dismissive wave. "Okay Paul, that's enough, you've had your fun. Now we have to dispose of these hunters as soon as possible before more of their friends show up." She scrunched up her nose playfully as if smelling something rotten. "They're like an infestation; once they get into your house, they just keep coming and coming. Such a nuisance."

The male vampire, now identified as Paul, stood up and, much to Jo's relief, left her alone. Instead, he moved over to Sam and Dean, who were both staring at him as if they would each gladly trade ten years of their lives just for the chance to bash this thing's head in. Paul grabbed Dean's left arm and Sam's right and hauled them to their feet.

"You're so right, that's exactly what they are. Still, they are fun to play with, aren't they?"

With that, he roughly shoved Sam with an underarm toss as if he were a bowling ball and, caught off balance by the violence of the shove, he fell into Dean and in seconds the two of them lay tangled up in one another and sprawled out on the floor. Greta and Paul both laughed.

"Okay, honestly, you are such a big kid, you need to –" She stopped halfway through her playfully reprimanding lecture and her face twisted into a wide-eyed look of shock and awe as she stared at Sam and Dean with newfound appreciation. "Oh my god."

Paul looked up from the handiwork of his latest game to amusedly yet curiously eye up her startled face. "What?"

She was suddenly staring at Sam and Dean as if they should be on some exhibit at a museum for strange and unexplained objects. "Don't you see it?" She was silent for several seconds and then her next words came out as a mere whisper. "Semper sodales."

"Semper sodales?" Paul snorted. "Come on, there are no such things."

From the ground, Dean grunted. "Aw, c'mon Sam, you weigh, like, a thousand pounds, get offa me!"

Sam rolled off of his brother and made an attempt to stand. "Sorry Dean."

"Stay where you are!" she snarled. "Don't you dare get up!" She raced over towards the men, who were by then sitting side by side, and pushed them together so that their shoulders and arms were touching, then took several steps back and looked up crazily at the male vamp, "Look! Step away from them! Look at their energies, look at how they comingle!"

Paul raised an eyebrow at her as if she'd just gone completely mad but stood up and backed away from the two men as asked. After a second he took in a sharp inhale of breath. "Well, I'll be damned." He eyed them up closely, clearly seeing something that Jo couldn't. "Who would have thought? They really do exist." The reverent tone only lasted for about fifteen seconds though and then he smirked. "Boy, you two must have really pissed off some god in a past life, tell you what." He shook his head. "Brothers."

"It's amazing." Greta still looked and sounded completely awestruck and Paul's expression suddenly changed to confused and worried.

"You're not thinking of doing what I think you are."

"The vampire bond between mates is already so strong, just think if they were _semper sodales_, the things they could do."

"Yeah, it sounds like a great science experiment but not with these two. They're _hunters_ and they'll kill all of us."

Jo was trying to keep up with the conversation but she obviously needed to brush up on her Latin because they couldn't possibly be suggesting that Sam and Dean were what her mind kept translating that phrase to mean. She shut her eyes against the throbbing pain in her wrist and tried to focus, but time and time again the translation kept taking her to the same place. She turned her head to examine Sam and Dean to see if they were just as confused as she. They did indeed look a little surprised and Dean appeared to be about as indignant as he was when she'd walked in on them earlier that day, while Sam looked thoughtful, like he was at last piecing together a grand puzzle. But neither of them looked in the least bit confused.

"Soulmates?" As Sam spoke the word, his tone was reverent, as if he was saying a prayer. He and Dean turned to each other and then Sam let out his breath in a huff. "So that's what it is. How can you see that?" he asked softly.

Greta shook her head. "Tut, tut, and here I thought you were the smart one." She paused but when she was met with no answer, threw her hands up. "Come on, I feed off of people's life force, do you really think I can't see their energy? And yours," she pointed between the both of them, "confirms everything I've been told." She turned to Dean and grinned wickedly. "So, you think we're all parasites do you?" She began to walk across the room towards the side door where the still hanging victim swung helplessly from a ceiling rafter. "Let me guess; you can practically read each other's thoughts, right? Sometimes it seems like you can literally feel each other's pain? Get anxious whenever the other one's in trouble?" She reached the victim and grabbed the still slowly filling oil pan from underneath the pale, limp body while Sam and Dean stared at her in open-mouthed amazement. "And I'll bet you can feel an empty gaping hole," she pointed to the center of her chest, "right here if the other one is gone, don't you? No doubt you can also usually pinpoint exactly where the other one is if he's close enough, too, am I right?" She walked back towards them, carrying the pan. "Well, it sounds like you two probably can't, and I mean literally can't, live without the other one, at least, not for very long." Her grin widened as she focused a hateful stare directly at Dean. "What do you wanna bet that if your soulmate here was a vampire you'd change your tune? In fact, I'll bet you couldn't kill him if he was getting ready to feed on you and begged you to kill him."

She walked over to Sam with a self-satisfied smirk on her lips. Sam saw what was about to happen and, despite being tied up and watched by two very strong vampires, made to get up and run towards the nearest machete but she caught him in an instant.

Dean growled. "You get away from him!"

"Oh, no, I don't think I will. Because, you see, you're going to feel what it's like to really have to make a hard decision and find out who the real monster is." She knelt down, stared into Sam's eyes, and played with Sam's hair, caressing it with her fingertips. Sam struggled and tried to get to his feet but she wrapped an arm around waist, effectively holding him in place. She then set down the pan of blood in front of her, grabbed Sam's arm with her now free hand, and nipped at her wrist so that a slow trickle of blood began to run from it. She then laid a kiss on his forearm, near the elbow. "It's only gonna sting for a minute, sweetie." With that, she bit into his arm and pushed her bloody wrist directly against the open wound.

"No!"

Dean's anguished scream barely even sounded human as he fought his restraints, trying to save Sam from the bad awful thing his little brother was going through. It was no use; he was tied fast and the blood from the two wounds was already intermingling. Paul squealed delightedly like a small child on Christmas and Greta stared at Dean with a look of pure, unabashed, delight and sadistic evil. Sam grunted and groaned in exertion as he tried to pull his arm away but Greta had it held fast. In the next second, she let him go and picked up the oil pan.

"Open up now, come on!" She squeezed the sides of Sam's face hard and when he didn't open his mouth, put the pan to his lips, pried it between them, and poured. Blood trickled down his lips, chin, and spilled down the front of his already bloody shirt.

In the meantime, Dean screamed as big tears rolled down his cheeks. "No! Sam, Sammy!" He hung his head and let out a choked sob and a whispered, "Sammy."

Once the pan was empty, she finally took it away from Sam's mouth and set it back down on the ground. "There we go. That should keep you sick long enough for your dear old brother to decide what he's gonna do with you." She turned to Paul. "Put 'em in; I'll get the girl."

Paul grabbed Sam and Dean and hauled them to their feet while Greta gruffly grabbed Jo by the arms and hauled her up against her will. Slowly they made their way to the shed, which lay about twenty feet behind them and still had the key inside the padlock. With one hand Greta undid the lock.

"Now we'll see who kills whom and may the best monster win." With that, she shoved Jo into absolute darkness so hard that she hit the ground with a thud, quickly followed by two more, louder thuds beside her. She didn't have much protection left on her, just a small silver knife she had hidden in her sock but she pulled it out anyway, waiting to see who would attack her first; the newly turned Cornwallis family, or Sam.


	10. Who is the Real Monster

The door to the shed closed behind them with a loud slam and they were left in complete darkness. With the hand that wasn't clutched around her little knife, Jo tried to thrust her hand into her front shirt pocket where she always kept her lighter but the instant she moved her wrist, a shock of pain shot through her arm and hand that made her eyes cross and she stifled a groan and fought the urge to grab her wrist. It was definitely broken, probably in several places, and she bet that if she touched it, she'd feel several carpals pushing against the skin at odd angles. She slipped the handle of her knife in the palm of her useless hand so she could use her good hand to pull out her lighter, but in the next second a fire flickered in front of Dean's face, illuminating him and about three feet in front of him and casting shadows around the rest of the room. He was crouched in front of Sam, who was slumped against the back of the shed and unmoving, but his conflicted and pained face was turned towards the five newborn vampires, who were crouched in a dark corner, mere shadows in the room. She pulled out her own lighter and, once it was lit, held it out so she could eye up the unmoving occupants in the room. Two men and a woman, who all looked around their mid-to-late thirties, the same age as the hanging victim by the door, were crowded in the far back of the corner. In front of them but being held close by one of the men and the woman were a little boy, and a little girl. They were all crouched in the far right corner of the shed, eyeing up their visitors uneasily but making no attempts to advance on them. It was way more disconcerting than if they'd just decided to attack. What were they waiting for? They probably hadn't had any human blood in a while and she and Dean must smell like two juicy steaks. And the moment they descended upon them, she and Dean didn't stand a chance for survival, especially with Sam being one of them. Greta was right; vampire or not, Dean would never kill Sam and might kill her if she tried to do the job herself.

She considered her options; they could continue to stand and stare at each other, but sooner or later these things were going to attack. On the other hand, maybe the newborns were scared of them; after all, they did blow through almost an entire nest of vampires. She decided to go for a bluff. Clutching the knife as hard as she could without wincing and showing weakness, she assumed a defensive stance. "Well, come on, what the hell are you waiting for?"

From the back of the huddled group a tall, red-headed man who she remembered from before as the one who had agitatedly kept jerking his head down to look at the floor as he'd tied her up, spoke in a slightly muffled voice that sounded like it had a possible lisp. "We're keeping our distance so we don't eat you."

She looked to her left where Dean had been a second ago. For his part, Dean didn't seem to know or care why they weren't attacking; his back was to them and his attention was once again fully on Sam. It wasn't a huge surprise that Sam was in such a sad state; with how much dead man's blood that vamp had probably still managed to push down Sam's throat, he'd be too sick to move. Still, the paralysis wasn't going to last for long and, even sick, Sam would be extremely dangerous if they got too close to him. As Dean knelt down beside his brother, gently cupped the back of his head in his hand, gently shook him, and leant his face down close to Sam's though, it seemed that that thought either hadn't occurred to him, or it had and, again, he just didn't care.

"Sam!" Dean's frantic voice rang around the enclosed space. Sam was staring up at Dean with unfocused eyes as Dean continued to say his name. She turned away from the two Winchesters and kept her eyes on the monsters crouching in the shadows. Watching the two of them was painful. Firstly, it was scary to see Dean so quickly lose any sense of self-preservation when he was faced with the possibility of losing Sam. Out of the five hunters who had started on this hunt, there were only two of them left and Dean, it seemed, had checked out. Secondly, she was now standing in front of five vampires alone with one measly weapon that could do very little in the way of actually decapitating anyone. And thirdly, Dean was showing once again that, no matter the circumstances, his first and possibly only priority in his life was _Sam_, and seeing that firsthand was simultaneously heartbreaking and maddening.

"Sam! Hey – hey – hey – hey, Sam, hey, it's okay Sammy, how far along have you changed? It's okay, we'll take care of it, I'll take care of you, it'll be okay…"

"Dean." Sam's voice was quiet and barely audible in between all of Dean's nonsensical babblings, but Dean shut his mouth and stared at his brother with searching eyes.

"Sammy?"

"I'm okay."

Dean scanned his eyes down his body. "What? No, you can't be _okay_."

Sam sat up on his elbows, shook his head, and ran a hand down his face. When he opened his eyes again, they looked a little more focused. "No, I really think I am. Dean, help me up." Without hesitation, Dean grabbed Sam's hand and wrapped an arm around his waist as he helped haul him to his feet.

Once he was on his feet, Dean let him go, took a step back, and scanned his eyes down Sam's body. "What do you mean you're okay?"

"I mean I can't hear your blood pumping, I don't feel sick, I feel…" he pruned up his eyebrows in thought. "I feel _human_."

Dean grabbed Sam's lip and pulled it up without Sam putting up a fight, and examined Sam's gums. "Well, I'll be damned. No vampire teeth. But – but –" He let go of Sam's face. "Then, what is this, a waiting period until you fully turn? How long does it take?"

From the corner of the room, one of the vamps, a boy small boy with pale skin, a freckled face, and dark brown hair who looked like he couldn't be older than thirteen, suddenly spoke up, his voice small and timid. "He's human."

Dean whipped around and stared at the boy very seriously. "How can you tell?"

The boy crinkled up his nose disgustedly. "He still smells like food."

Dean's eyes widened, his mouth fell slack, and he whipped his head back around to Sam, who stared back into his eyes in earnest and then gestured to his wounded arm. "But – but – she bled on you, she exposed you to the virus."

Sam shook his head and sighed as he rubbed the bite mark. "I know."

"But…how?" They both blinked as a moment of silent communication passed between them. "You think this is like the Croatoan virus?"

Sam shrugged. "It's the only thing I can think of. I mean, you said it yourself, she bled right on me, so I should have a mouthful of extra teeth and a hankering for human, but I don't, so I guess I must be immune somehow. What else could it be?"

Dean frowned. "Okay, so, whatever it is about you that – your psychic crap, or whatever, it makes you immune to not just some weirdo demonic virus but any supernatural blood borne disease?"

Sam hid his face behind his hair as he nodded, suddenly looking uncomfortable and shy. "Dean, I told you I haven't had any visions since Yellow-Eyes died. But yeah, I guess. Looks that way."

"Okay. Well…" Dean ran a hand over his face. "Silver lining. I guess."

Sam pursed his lips, sighed heavily, looked down at the ground, and nodded his head. Jo's head reeled. Neither she, nor she was pretty sure any other hunter, had ever heard of such a thing as human immunity against vampirism; the moment they were exposed to the virus, their heart stopped beating, they metamorphosed, and that was it. So, Sam was immune to vampirism and some other weirdo disease called a crow-uh-tone-an virus? What the hell was that, some other supernatural disease? It was one thing to be psychic, but _this_…what did it even mean? Was Sam even really human? As she looked to Dean and saw his freaked-out expression, it appeared that he might be thinking the same thing and she couldn't help but feel a small surge of glee. She wondered how much Dean would want his precious Sam now, even if they were…but, no, they weren't that. That vamp must have had something wrong. Or maybe she was just fucking with her. The things in this nest seemed pretty intuitive; maybe she'd already guessed how she felt about Dean. After all, there was no way…okay, so maybe they seemed to read each other's minds at times and she was willing to admit that whenever Sam was gone or missing, it always threw Dean into an irrationally anxious, if not crazy mindset, but that didn't mean…they were just close…_Dean kneeling in the shower, slipping Sam's hard dick in an out of his mouth, a finger inside Sam's ass_… Ugh. Really, _really_ close. But that was before the vampire immunity, would things still be the same?

Sam eyed her, looking concerned. "Jo? Are you okay?"

Jo nodded looked down at her wrist, instantly feeling a twinge of guilt for her thoughts. Sam was very clearly honestly worried about her welfare and here all she could think about was how to get him out of the way. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine." She couldn't lead on that she was injured, not with the vampires sitting right there. They weren't attacking at the moment, but that was no doubt going to change.

Sam pulled a fold-out knife from his shoe and clutched it in his hand and then took out lighter from his front pocket and further lit the room. The vampires were clearly visible now and from the gleam in their eyes, they looked hungry but were still in the exact same positions they had been when the three of them had first been shoved into the shed. The three hunters faced the vampires and the two groups silently stared at each other for several moments, no one from either side daring to move.

"So, what is this?" Dean asked. "World's longest staring contest, or is this just some new way you get off to playing with your food?"

"We already told you." The red-headed man spoke again and with the added light she could now see that the muffled lisp in his voice was caused by his vampire teeth being halfway extended, "We don't want to eat you. Just keep your distance over there and we'll all be fine."

Sam's face scrunched up in an expression that looked like a cross between thoughtful and confused. "Don't want to eat us?"

"No."

Sam shot back instantly. "Why?" It didn't sound like a question, but a demand.

The man gestured wildly towards the door of the shed. "Do you think I want to help those things out there? They murdered my wife right in front of me and made me drink her blood!" His face and eyes were contorted in pain and rage and Jo felt a tug of sympathy for the man.

Dean furrowed his brows and plumped his lips as he processed all this. "So, you're saying want to _help_ us?"

The man nodded. "She was the love of my life and they…they butchered her while I was made to watch, they treated it like it was some kind of party." He stopped talking for a moment and looked down at the ground. "She was screaming the whole time and I couldn't do anything to help her."

"And…" Sam gestured his arm to the group. "You _all_ feel this way?" He sounded doubtful.

The woman spoke up. "For weeks they've been torturing us, feeding off of us, threatening to kill us, and enjoying our misery. Now they killed Erin and turned us all just yesterday and they're already throwing humans at us, expecting us to be killers like them." She spat on the ground. "I want _them_ dead, that's all."

After she finished talking, the other vampires all muttered their approval. She looked at Sam and Dean and they all exchanged looks. She could see that Sam and Dean were thinking the same thing she was; no matter how these newborns felt about the vamps in this particular nest, they were still monsters and would have to die. It was really a shame too, because they seemed like they had been good people before they were turned.

Dean nodded. "Uh-huh. Well, you do know that eventually, you will become killers. You will all eventually need to feed, all of you."

The red-headed man sighed. "Do you have any idea what it's like to love someone with everything you got and have to watch them die bloody? Can you even fathom what that feels like?"

Sam and Dean exchanged a meaningful look. "We do, actually," Sam said. "It's awful, the only thing you can think about is getting them back again, or getting revenge. Trust me, we know."

"Look, I know that as soon as this is over, you're going to want to kill us. I know we're not exactly friends. But I don't care. We can't fight them alone because they keep feeding us her dead blood to keep us from being able to kill them. We're still stronger than you, but we're not as strong as them and we don't know how to fight them. But you obviously do, so we need you alive."

Sam and Dean were still looking intensely at each other with barely a break to even blink and looking as if they were once again sharing one of those private moments that felt just way too intimate for her to be able to watch. "So…" She turned away from the two men as quickly as she could to address the vamps and rubbed her hands together. She was so fucking ready to kill something. "What's the plan?"

The other man in the group, who she assumed was probably the husband of the woman, spoke immediately as if he'd just been waiting for the question. "Every night the nest lets us out. Until now, it was just to feed on us but after they turned us and fed us the blood, they told us that they'd give us the dead blood every night until we agreed to join their nest. We should attack as soon as they let us out at sunset. Until then, we wait; us over here and you guys way, way over there."

Reluctantly, the three hunters shut off their lighters and took their seats, with Jo on the left, Dean in the middle, and Sam on the right as they began to quietly and awkwardly bide their time until nightfall.


	11. Bound In Eternity

Hi guys, thank you for being so patient in waiting for this latest chapter. I want to thank **Twinchester Angel** for talking to me about the storyline. I have no idea where I'd be without her. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy!

.

After about ten minutes in the darkness, Jo's eyes began to adjust. There was just enough light coming through the small cracks in the wood where she could make out the shadows of the vampires and the figures of Sam and Dean beside her. She sat for a long time on the hard-packed earthen floor with her back resting against the shed wall, staring blankly into the darkness and breathing in the scents of earth, wood, and straw, blood and Dean's cologne. These would be the last things she took in before she died. The attack they were planning was a suicide mission; if the two vamps out there didn't kill them, then the ones in the shed, who knew they were next, would definitely try as soon as they safely could.

While she, Dean, and Sam sat in awkward silence, the family of newborn vampires sitting across the room spoke quietly to each other. The children's heads were turned around to look up at the three adults, who were talking quietly enough that she could only catch every third word or so, but it sounded like they were telling a story about some lake house in Michigan. As she stared ahead at them, she hoped that when she died that it wouldn't hurt too bad and wondered who would be the one to do it. Would it be Erin's supposed do-gooder husband? Or maybe one of the kids?

"Well…think…time…stashed…some…near here." A male voice from outside the shed startled her out of her thoughts. Whoever it was talking was too far away to be able to hear much more than muffled sounds and half-formed words but she heard the sound of soft footfalls and the voice began to get closer and more understandable. The family quickly stopped talking though and inclined their ears towards the source of the sound, seeming to strain over wanting to hear the words as well. "I don't… gotta worry…we can look for it right now." It was the male vampire who had taunted them all and broken her wrist, the one called Paul.

"Do you hear anything?" Greta's voice sounded as if she was shouting at him from the loft on the second floor not far away from the shed.

The footfalls became increasingly louder and when they stopped, Jo could hear the sound of someone breathing on the other side of the door. "Crickets."

"Good. That means the two human hunters are probably already dead."

"I really wanted to see that cocky, smug-faced one suffer. You think it was his mate who killed him?"

"No probably not; I dosed him up with enough blood to make him manageable later tonight."

"Too bad. I'm going to go look in the woods nearby." Jo heard the sound of retreating footfalls, followed once again by silence.

Back in the shed, the woman in the group of newborns looked excited. "This is good; they won't expect you."

Jo frowned but nodded and quickly looked away and after a pause the vampires went back to talking amongst themselves. Or maybe it would be that son of a bitch who had laughed when he broke her wrist who would kill her. She sat cradling it to her chest and feeling it throb in time with her heartbeat. When she experimentally pushed in on the hot, swollen flesh, her eyes involuntarily crossed and she barely managed to bite back a yelp. At least two carpals were out of place and would need to be re-set. She'd also need to wrap it in something keep the swelling down and limit mobility to prevent any further damage. She pulled out her small, silver spade and sheered into the bottom of her shirt, then used the fingers on her good hand to start ripping off the material the whole way around, but about halfway around her back, she began to have trouble one-handedly reaching the shorn off fabric. After a moment of struggling, she felt Dean's strong, warm, calloused hand cover hers.

"Let me." He ripped the rest of the fabric from the shirt and then held it up to her, then eyed her up and down, like a doctor doing a medical examination. "Tourniquet?"

She glanced furtively across the room, still wary about letting the vampires know that she was playing wounded, but knew that it was a failed effort; despite the fact that she could barely see them, they no doubt saw her and what she was doing with her wrist as clearly as if it was broad daylight. "My wrist."

She held it out to him and he gingerly took it into his hands. God help her, those big, rough, calloused hands felt so good on her skin. He was close to her, his face not more than six inches away and turned downwards to study her wrist as best he could in the dim light. A thin beam of light fell on his face at his stubbly jawbone, casting long shadows from his eyelashes under his eyes, and below that she could see the curves of his high cheekbones, the slope of his slender nose, and the curve of his full lips. He looked almost angelic in the light and maybe he would have looked completely so if not for the small drops of blood spatter dotted along the faint line of freckles on his sun-kissed cheek and the jaded hardness that he always wore behind that sweet-faced mask.

As she watched him, she mused over what an enigma Dean could be. On one hand, he was the kind of guy who would toy with her emotions just to get some attention, who could be inconceivably calloused and cavalier about other people's feelings, and broke hearts and blew town as easy as breathing. In short, he was kind of a jerk. But, on the other, he was also extremely protective, risked his life for others without thinking twice about it, and was capable of so much love that it sometimes felt like something she could literally see and touch, like now as he gingerly touched her or when he threw all caution to the wind to hold Sam when they thought he'd been turned into a vamp. Flaws aside, Dean Winchester was a really good guy. And she'd as good as killed him; after tonight, they would all be dead. And her mom probably already was.

"Dean, I…"

Dean looked up from examining her wrist and stared into her eyes for just a moment, but then frowned as if he didn't like what he saw there, looked back down and quickly interrupted her. "I'm going to have to set this. Ready….one…two…"

There was a loud crack and then an agonizing, shooting burn moved like a bullet through her arm, up to her shoulder, and then rang in her head and made her ears pop. This time she couldn't help the cry of pain from escaping, though she did break the skin of her lip trying to bite it back, along with a couple of tears.

"Sorry." He turned her wrist over in his hand. "Looks better now. I'm going to wrap it now, okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, do whatever you have to."

He wrapped the fabric around her wrist a couple of times and then tied it off expertly, keeping it just tight enough to allow blood flow but also keep the swelling down. "How's that?"

"Good."

He put her wrist back down to the side and then used his thumb to wipe the few drops of blood that had collected on her lip. The touch would have almost seemed sensual if it wasn't for the look on his face, which was filled with love and concern, but not the kind she'd always dreamed of. It was the kind that a brother would feel for his little sister. The protectiveness in it was similar to how he looked at Sam, but it lacked the reverence, adoration, devotion, and all-consuming heat that always went to his little brother. Still, her lips tingled in response to the touch and she unconsciously parted them before she remembered herself and embarrassedly flinched away.

Dean scowled and dropped his hand to the side. "Sorry, forgot." He looked down at the ground, but she still saw the hurt on his face that he was no doubt trying to hide by looking away. "I'm still disgusting, right?" He smiled at the ground and when he looked back up at her, he had on a cocky grin. "I'll try not to touch you anymore."

Yeah, of course he was disgusting, although if she was being honest about it, she didn't know how much of her disgust was because he was sleeping with Sam and how much of it was because he wasn't sleeping with her. She smiled at the both of them and shook her head. "I guess this is the moment when I tell you that I'm sorry I got us all killed." She looked down at her lap and used her nail to begin picking at a spot on the knee of her jeans. "Guess I wasn't as professional as I thought I was."

Dean smiled and cocked his head a little to the side. "Well, yeah, you definitely could've handled it better, but…" He paused. "We're not dead yet. We'll figure something out."

Beside Dean, Sam was less visible but she could still see the way he was uncomfortably cricking his neck to the side and twitching his mouth as if trying to will himself to speak. "Jo," he finally choked out, "we're really sorry you found out…the way you did."

Cheeks burning with embarrassment, Jo turned away to stare at the wooden slats of the shed. "Yeah, me too."

.

Dean rolled his eyes as Jo retreated into sulky silence after Sam's attempt at an apology. Sam was always trying to mend bridges. Well, if she was waiting to hear an apology from him, she was going to be waiting a long ass time, because Dean sure as hell wasn't sorry. In fact, if they actually survived this, maybe it would teach Jo to friggin' knock next time before she just barged into other people's motel rooms. He was going to have to talk to her again before nightfall to make sure she was over this one-woman-army, Xena-warror-princess shit and was ready to work together as a team, but that could wait; in the meantime, he'd let her sit and stew for a while about whatever it was she needed to work through.

Besides that, he had some things of his own to think about. Using his peripheral vision, he glanced at the family across the room. The two men in the group were talking quietly to each other at a volume that was too quiet to hear, while the other three already looked like they were asleep. He turned to Sam and tried to keep his voice as low as possible. "How the hell are you immune to vampirism?"

Sam's eyes grew wide and his face twitched uncomfortably. "I – I don't know. I mean, you saw some of the things those other psychic kids could do, maybe immunity is just a part of it."

"I thought you said all that shit stopped when Yellow-Eyes died."

"It did! I swear, Dean, no visions, no special powers, no nothing."

Was it just him, or was Sam's face twitching a little too much while he talked to fast to be telling the truth? He narrowed his eyes. "But what?"

Sam cocked his head to the side and the left side of his face twitched nervously. "Nothing." He paused and then, seeing his skeptical face, rolled his eyes. "Come on, Dean! You're with me 24/7, if I was having visions, don't you think you'd know about it? I mean, with the headaches, I can't exactly hide them from you."

Dean nodded, feeling a little guilty; here they were, in an already stressful situation and he was giving poor Sammy the third degree. "You're right. I'm sorry, Sammy. It's just, this whole thing is so friggin' weird."

"I know. It's freaking me out, too." He paused, looking a little crestfallen. "Dean, I don't like being a freak."

Dean smirked. "We're both freaks. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe you are a little more so, but don't bitch just because you got the freak half of the soul, while I got all the good looks."

"What? No you didn't, jerk."

Dean winked. "Bitch."

Sam shook his head but cracked a small smile. "We should talk about tonight."

"Yeah. What do you think? I'm not sure I like big red's plan over there of getting together and springing on them; once the two of them out there are dead, it sets the whole family up to be able to plan their own attack, on us."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I know. Do you think they'll turn on us?"

Dean shrugged. "I think they might."

"Look at those kids, they can't be much older than, what? Thirteen and fifteen? Do you think we'll have to…"

"I don't know. You know I hate the thought of it, but they might not leave us much of a choice. It's just lucky for us that if they turn on us, it'll at least be an even match with them still being weak and sick from all the regular diet of dead man's blood they've been fed."

"Maybe we could help them? Track down Lenore?"

"I don't know if that's such a great idea. I mean, it's not like her nest is exactly going to be happy to see us again. And you're suggesting that we just waltz right in, throw a few newborn vampires at them, and say 'here, keep them under control and make sure they don't kill anybody?' These things are new, which means that they're going to want to snack on humans more than anything and Lenore's nest is trying to keep a low profile."

"They haven't killed anyone yet."

"Yeah, I know. Yet. Let's just live through tonight and then we'll figure the rest out later. About that, any bright ideas?"

Sam shook his head. "No, not yet. Let's see, we've got…" he quickly looked around the room, "lighters, hay, a couple of small knives…It's not like we've got a lot to work with in here."

"Yeah, you're right. Hey, what if I cut myself?" Sam gave him a look like he'd gone insane. "Yeah, come on. It'll be the back-up plan. If we look like we're going to lose this one, I could just chum the water a little bit; it'll send all of them into a feeding frenzy and make it easier for you and Jo to take them out."

Sam's mouth dropped open. "Dean, with that plan, you'll be dead within thirty seconds."

Dean shrugged. "So what? Worst case scenario, it just sends me downstairs a few months early."

"Shut-up, don't talk like that."

"Well, unless you've got a better idea…"

Sam slid forward and close enough that Dean could feel his breath falling his face. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were pursed tightly shut, mouth firmly set into a hard, straight line. "You're a real sonofabitch sometimes, you know that?" He paused, but then spoke again, his voice a pitch higher. "You know what? You heard her out there. You know what we are. You know what you're doing to me with this stunt you pulled to get me back and you're acting like it's no big deal."

Dean nodded. "You know what? I do know. We both knew what we were since we were kids. And I'm sorry. But if I had it to do all over again, I still would. Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't do the same thing too if the situation was reversed."

Sam swallowed hard, clenched his jaw, and gave Dean a hard silent stare for several seconds, then turned away. "We'll think of something else."

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Sam stewed in anger at Dean and tried to think of a plan to get them out of the nest. At first, he'd been happy at first when they'd taken the conversation away from his psychic abilities and vampirism immunity. Dean didn't know yet about the demon blood and, given the way Dean had finally just stopped looking at him like he was a freak after Yellow-Eyes died, Sam was in no hurry to tell him. He'd been called 'freak' ever since he was a kid. Deep down, he always knew it was true; after all, he was a nerdy, awkward, shy, geeky kid who was in love with his older brother and his family moved around a lot so they could hunt ghosts. But no one knew that, so he always wondered if he had some kind of secret brand that others saw and then knew that there was something freakishly wrong with him. And then, after his first vision was the first time he'd ever seen Dean give him that look, as if he was seriously flawed in some frightening way, like a monster. And maybe he was. But Dean didn't know about the monstrous thing inside him and it was nice to pretend that he was normal for a while.

But the conversation had turned from his vampirism immunity to Dean effectually killing himself. Let the vampires feed on him so he could get away? It was bad enough that he had Dean's contract looming over him, but now it seemed he had to save Dean from the Pit and keep him from committing suicide by monster. He wished every day that Dean had just let him stay dead. Gretchen was right; Sam couldn't live without him. Soulmates. It made so much sense that he was shocked neither of them had ever figured it out before. He betted that Bobby had known all along, since before the night he'd asked their dad to meet him in Louisiana to help him on his hunt.

The night Bobby called, Sam remembered that it was late because he was already dressed in his Spiderman feety pajamas and he and Dean were sitting on their bed watching _Thundercats_ when their dad had grabbed the remote and turned down the volume so he could talk. From the half of the phone conversation Sam had heard, it sounded like Bobby had practically begged their dad to drive down to Louisiana.

"It's a what now? A bisha-gat-suku? Well, of course it's rare, I've never even heard of one before. Well, I'm not sure how I could help, I'm already working my own job up in Nebraska… What do you mean there's an ingredient you don't have? I've seen your study, there's no way there's an ingredient that I, or any other person alive has that you don't. Look, I'd love to help you but, like I said, I'm working my own job. That's right. Three, why? Twenty? No. You're sure? And I'm the only one who can help you? Alright, fine; I'll gather the boys together and we'll be there in a couple of days. Yeah, alright."

As usual, Sam didn't understand most of the conversation their dad had just had or what was happening, but he obediently got into the car without a fuss. He was tired, so he was glad when their dad didn't make him change out of his feety pajamas. They drove all night and he and Dean curled up beside each other and slept in the backseat. By the time they got to New Orleans and found the house where Bobby was staying, two days had passed and it was late at night again but when they knocked, Bobby opened the door right away and rushed them inside. The room they stepped into was dim and had a large, metal bowl sitting on top of a table with some strange white drawings on it. Sam trusted Uncle Bobby, but felt a little scared and grabbed Dean's hand.

"So, what are we doing here, Bobby?" Their dad had asked. "What's this special ingredient I have that you need?"

Bobby took off his trucker's cap, looked down, scratched his head, put the cap back on, and finally looked at the wall. Sam had a feeling that this was not going to be a pleasant visit. "I, ah, well, I've been translating this spell from Japanese so I can get this sucker. It's taken me a little while, you know my Japanese isn't perfect, but, it asked for 'the blood of two souls bound in eternity.'"

Their dad nodded. "Rare thing."

"Yep. Well, I didn't know how to get it, so I went up to see that psychic we've used before; you know, old Graber."

John nodded. "I know him."

"Well, anyway, Graber said, rare or not, I knew two boys who fit the bill. John, I need some of Sam and Dean's blood."

Their dad crossed his arms and laughed in an odd way that told Sam he didn't think that what Uncle Bobby said was very funny. "So, Graber's still mad at me, that it? How much did he pay you to make me come out of my way like this?"

Bobby once again took off the trucker's cap to scratch his head and put it back on. "Well, John, I reckon Graber probably is still mad at you, you stubborn ass, but he's not the kind of man to do something like that; you know that."

Their dad clenched his jaw, turned around, and began to walk towards the door. "Boys! We're leaving."

Sam was upset. He didn't understand what was going on but knew that, for whatever reason, Uncle Bobby thought that what he needed was important. "But, Daddy, I want to help Uncle Bobby!"

"Yeah," Dean chimed in. "We drove all this way, it's just a little blood, what's the big deal? I'll keep holding Sammy's hand to make sure he doesn't get scared."

Their dad turned around and stared at Dean with narrowed eyes. Dean instantly shrank back and Sam felt the grip on his hand tighten. "It won't help! It won't work!"

Bobby sighed. "John, this thing's already killed twenty people and it's gunning for a twenty-first. The boys want to try it. If it doesn't work, I'll pay you for the money you spent in gas and just think of something else."

Sam's eyes widened. Somehow his blood was going to stop something from killing people? Uncle Bobby owned a junkyard and their dad worked selling stuff, how did they also save lives? Was this a second job? Uncle Bobby and their dad stared at each other silently and it seemed to him that they were keeping him out of a big secret that he really needed to know.

Their dad grimaced. "Fine! I spent roughly $110.00 on gas." He crossed his arms. "Better get your wallet ready now because after I bandage up my sons, you'll have about five seconds to get out of my face before I blast it full of rock salt."

Sam didn't understand why their dad was so angry with Uncle Bobby. He looked up at Dean for an explanation, but Dean shrugged, let go of his hand, and walked up towards the table with the big bowl and took a knife from Uncle Bobby. He watched Dean cut himself and then walked up beside him and held out his own arm. As Dean cut him, he tried not to squirm or cry because he wanted to show everyone what a big boy he was, just like Dean. They stood over the pan and held out their arms, watching small drops of dark crimson slowly drip into the bowl that was already filled with all sorts of herbs and crushed up stuff he didn't recognize. The instant their blood hit the mixture in the pan, it started to fizz and Bobby pulled their arms back and quickly lit it on fire. Colorful sparks flew into the air. Sam thought it looked really pretty, like a fireworks show. Dean had clapped him on the shoulder and said, "that's how you know it worked. You did real good, Sammy," and Sam felt proud of himself, but when he looked over at their dad, he didn't seem so proud. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were darting quickly back and forth between him and Dean, as if he was seeing them for the first time. Sam wanted to ask their dad what was wrong, but Bobby quickly grabbed his arm, holding a bottle of alcohol and with a clean bandage draped over his arm.

Their dad took them out of the room without so much as a word and they all silently climbed into the car, a heavy awkward air around them. Sam felt like he was in trouble for some reason, but didn't exactly understand why. Their dad first took them to a liquor store, where he bought three bottles of whiskey, and then to a run-down motel. As soon as they got into the room, their dad practically collapsed into a chair in the corner of the room, grabbed one of the bottles from its brown paper bag, unscrewed the cap, wrapped his lips around the neck of the bottle, and took a long pull. Dean looked wary as sat down on a bed and Sam quickly climbed up beside him. Dean grabbed the remote from off the nightstand and turned on the television. They flipped through the channels for a while, trying to ignore the way their dad sat in the corner drinking while staring at them with a sad look on his face for the rest of the night. They never talked about that night again, but from then on their dad no longer allowed them to sleep in the same bed and grinned proudly whenever Dean flirted with waitresses.

Sam had always remembered that night, but hadn't understood its full significance until today. They were soulmates, 'bound in eternity.' And their dad had known it all along. He also probably knew the main reason why Dean had spent the better part of his life whoring around and why Sam had left for Stanford. It had taken them too long to come to terms with how they felt and even longer to accept it. Despite everything, Sam still loved Jo like a sister and he would never hurt her by throwing his relationship with Dean in her face or do something like touch or kiss him in front of her. But he wasn't going to stop sleeping with Dean for Jo's approval; after ten years of hiding his feelings for Dean because of their dad, he wasn't planning on doing it again.

From outside the shed, Sam heard the creek of the barn door open and close. "Greta! I found then! Two cars, full of stuff. Help me bring it in, would ya?"

A loud thud, like something heavy being dropped from the upper loft, startled him and he jerked slightly. "Where are the cars?" Sam sighed in relief; it was just Greta jumping down from the loft.

"They're in the woods, at the edge of the field. What did I tell ya? I knew there'd be stuff stashed around somewhere; after all, it's not like they walked here, right? You should see it all; knives, guns, ammo, protective charms… Hell, there're enough silver weapons, if we melted them all down they'd bring in a pretty penny just in the price of silver alone."

"Did you find any cash?"

"Just sixty-five. It's not much, but it don't matter. We'll just sell all this shit. We can even sell the cars; I mean, it's not like they're ever gonna need anything ever again, right?"

"Alright, but afterwards we gotta get out of town so we're not linked to these hunters; if anything ever comes back that we're the ones who sold their possessions, too many others will look for us."

Sam turned excitedly to Dean and Jo. "Two cars; Bobby got away. Ellen's probably with him."

From the way Dean grinned and Jo cried silently as she smiled, it seemed that they had both been thinking the same thing. For the next half hour, the barn door continually opened and closed as all the weapons and supplies from the two remaining cars were dumped onto the barn floor.

"It sounds like they're hauling everything in," Dean whispered. "Is it just me, or do we suddenly have a chance of actually getting out of this thing alive? All we gotta do is get to a couple of big knives…"

"Before they get to our guns to defend themselves," Sam finished. "We can kill them with the knives, but they can kill us with almost all the crap we've got in our trunk."

Jo slid up beside them, her eyes wide with excitement. "I think I know what to do."


	12. Facing Up

I really, REALLY apologize for the long delay in posting this. I want to thank Carla X for her encouragement by e-mailing about updates. I also want to thank my dearest Ganymede Elegy for her tremendous beta-ing & writing support. I love you, Moose!

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Jo lay beside Sam and Dean on the far side of the shed, where the newborn vampires had been huddled all day. They were gone from that corner now, perched near the door and waiting for their moment to be let out. Maybe it was because they'd been sitting upwind from the small group, but she couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed how terrible they smelled before. It was pretty obvious that this family hadn't even allowed to leave the shed to wash up or use the bathroom. The corner reeked of rot, unwashed bodies, and urine. It was so strong that if it wasn't for her history with smells like rotting bodies and burning, gasoline-doused corpses, she was sure she would have vomited by now. She was also willing to believe that Greta and Paul really didn't know that she, Sam, and Dean were still alive in the shed because they probably held their breath whenever they got close enough to smell their blood.

She didn't want to think about what was really lying beneath her on that dirt floor, or about what she'd done earlier that day, or especially about their plan for later that night. It was her plan, yeah, but she'd only mentioned it because it was the only thing she could think of and no one else was speaking up. Sam and Dean having both agreed to it only said just how screwed out of options they were. She had a Plan B that she hadn't told them about, just in case things went south. If she had to use it, then she should be the only other person today who wouldn't be making it out of the barn alive. But, if she really knew Dean at all, then she could bet that he had his own Plan B that involved sacrificing himself. In some ways, she and Dean were really too much alike. And, Hell, for all she and Sam knew, whatever suicidal thing Dean was thinking of doing could secretly be his Plan A. She hoped not, because if it was the last thing she did, she really wanted to make sure that Dean and Sam made it out of this alive.

She felt the soft cotton and hard, stiff, dried blood of Dean's faded t-shirt to her right and Sam's excessive body heat to her left and rued over how little they deserved to be locked up with her in this shed. Her self-righteous anger had bubbled away hours ago as she'd contemplated and rejected most of her justifications for holding onto her rage. Did what she saw when she walked into Dean and Sam's bathroom still disgust her? Oh Hell yes. But it shouldn't have changed anything about what she did on the hunt. And she knew it wasn't some high-ground moral stance that made her act the way she did, either. It wasn't incest she felt like she was triumphing over when she saw how upset Dean was at being called a pervert and she didn't recklessly charge into a vampire's and try to kill them all single-handedly because she was on some moral crusade. She couldn't even say that she'd wanted to impress Dean by pulling that stupid stunt; she wasn't showing him what he was missing as much as she was showing herself that she really was incredible in some way, that she had something that no one else did. Because it wasn't just about that Dean was committing incest, or even that he'd chosen his brother over her: it was the realization that he saw her as nothing more than at best a little sister and at worst just some silly girl he could flirt with when he didn't have a hunt to go on and there was nothing better on TV. She knew Dean was a major flirt, but with her, she felt like there was more to it. And for that, she was a silly girl. Silly, mostly for ignoring how close Dean and Sam's relationship was, even if she didn't know about the extent of the twisted sexual part of it. She thought about what her mom had said earlier: _Didn't you feel at least a little suspicious when Dean openly declared that he would rather die than live without Sam? _No, she hadn't, but it should have told her that, at the very least, Sam was irreplaceable. Why hadn't she realized that, in all of her fantasies of hunting with Dean and sharing a room alone with him night after night, all she'd been doing was inserting herself into Sam's place? Sam was the only person who Dean shared his life with and, whether they kept fucking each other or not, she was sure that Sam the only person Dean ever would share it with. Spending hours quietly waiting for death had a strange way of bringing with it a lot of clarity.

Not that Dean was totally innocent in all this, of course. He'd led her on and let her think he was interested in more than just casual talk. And all that made him a jerk. But he wasn't worthy of the bloody death they were all quietly waiting for.

And Sam deserved death even less; his only offense was to be in love with Dean and actually have his love returned. She'd spent the larger part of the day wishing that she could hate him, but he just wasn't allowing it. He really was sorry she'd found out about them the way she did, that much she could tell, and not just because he was embarrassed being caught getting a blow job in the shower. He was sorry that she'd seen something so jarring and hurtful to her, that she had to find out about them by seeing with her own eyes one of the most private parts of their relationship. Once she'd had time to think about it, she wondered how many times over the years before they were together that Sam had found out about Dean's being with various women in exactly the same way. And somehow she was almost positive that he had. Sam knew how she felt and _actually felt bad _for making her feel that way.

She buried her face into Dean's bicep, using his faint cologne and earthy musky scent to at least mask the stench surrounding them. In a moment of silent understanding, Dean gripped her hand and buried his nose in her hair. It wasn't romantic, it wasn't sexual, and she knew now that for him it never would be. But it was love. They sat like this for several minutes, with Jo breathing in Dean's scent and basking in his silent gesture of comfort. This were the last good things that she might ever see and feel and she wanted to savor them for as long as possible. But then she heard footsteps approach the shed and a sliver of light crept towards them as the door opened.


End file.
